Not enough global political will to prioritise children: Satyarthi

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Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi on Saturday said the world lacks enough "global political will" to prioritise children and adequate budgetary allocations have not been made for education, health and child protection.

"There is a need of global political will to prioritise children and that is not so adequate which is supposed to be. I always call upon the government to protect one generation. You need not to worry about next generation. They will protect themselves.

"Unfortunately, we do not have the enough global political will where children are prioritised, the policies are for the betterment of the children, laws are properly enforced and where adequate budgetary allocations are made to ensure education, health and protection of children," said Satyarthi at an interactive session with Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.

Satyarthi, whose organisation has been working in 144 countries across the world for child protection and was as jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, said there is strong correlation between child labour and unemployment.

"Globally, 168 million child labourers are working in the harshest conditions while 210 million adults are jobless," he said

Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, he said 11 children go missing in India every hour and half of them are never rescued.

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme, he said: "Girl child is not safe. Most of them do not feel safe at home as they are often sexually abused by their relatives. Even the boys are not safe."

He called for a collective moral responsibility from every citizen as well as corporates and the government to come forward for the protecting children.