“The children of today will make the India of tomorrow. The way we bring them up will determine the future of the country.”
Children’s Day in India is celebrated on November 14, 2017, as a day to celebrate the innocence of children and the importance of children in society. The day also commemorates the birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru our country’s first Prime Minister.
Children’s Day was first celebrated in 1964 after Nehru’s death. On this day, chocolates and gifts are often distributed among children, while schools organize different events such as debates, and music and dance performances. It is also a common practice to distribute gifts like clothes, toys and books to orphan children on this day.
On this day, the State and the Central Government also make it a point to showcase children’s films as part of Film festivals organized in many parts of the country.
Child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi today appealed to the political parties to devote at least one full day of the upcoming Parliament session to deliberate on children’s issues.
ChildLine has planned a series of programmes on the occasion of Children’s Day, which includes a ChildLine se Dosti campaign. The campaign comprises awareness programmes at railway stations, street plays, awareness in malls and a candle light vigil.
The Universal Children’s Day is celebrated on November 20, as it marks the anniversary when UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1989) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990). Thus, Children’s Day is basically a celebration to increase awareness of the rights, care, and education of children, worldwide.
