Aarti Dhar
NEW DELHI: Dream of an India where all children will receive quality education without discrimination is what prompted Sanjukta Pangi from Orissa, Samuel Venkatesan from Tamil Nadu and Narendra Kumar from Uttar Pradesh to push for the inclusion of quality education in the agenda of the UNICEF’s Junior 8 (J8) summit, held parallel to the G8 meet in Italy last week. The youngsters said education was a key concern.
While the J8 focused on climate change and child rights in the context of the financial crisis, we recommended post-primary education for all children and safe public transport for students as part of our declaration, Sanjukta, a tribal girl from Koraput district, told journalists here.
The class XII student presented the demands personally to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at L’Aquila.
She was among 14 youngsters from countries attending the G8, selected by their peers, to meet top world leaders to submit the J8 ‘Rome Declaration.’
“It was the biggest day of my life when I told the Prime Minister that I was a tribal girl from Orissa. He was overwhelmed and introduced me to all the other leaders present there,” she said, bubbling with enthusiasm.
Now, Sanjukta wants to meet Dr. Singh once again along with children from other States to apprise him of the problems they face. Her father is a farmer and she had to struggle to convince her parents to send her to school.
“I am sure that our Prime Minister will do something in this regard. He has promised that he will look into our recommendations,” said the aspiring IAS.
Samuel, the first person in his village in Krishnagiri district to complete secondary education, feels that by building public opinion, political leaders could be forced to take note of the demands.
“If we can form school-based monitoring groups all over the country and raise our demands, politicians will have to hear us. I will work for the action plan we adopted at the J8 summit,” he said.
The U.N. children’s agency plans to coordinate with its State offices in India to form a community of young leaders who will interact with people’s representatives on relevant issues.
“Our backgrounds were different and there was a language barrier, but we became friends and worked together,” Sanjukta said. While Sanjukta met Dr. Singh, Narendra and Samuel interacted with the Mayor of Rome and Italian Members of the Parliament.
“I sat on the Mayor’s chair by mistake. When he gave his address, the Mayor said I am sure this child will be a Mayor one day,” said Narendra.