This book discusses regional and global discourses on the rights of children, especially girls. It focuses on social and government initiatives to address the marginalization of women and girls in societies across the world. It traces the root causes for the vulnerable positions of girls and women and the challenges associated with improving their access to opportunities, education, healthcare and socio-economic freedoms. It explores national and international initiatives for the welfare and development of the girl child and recent social, legal and policy developments towards uplifting vulnerable girls in largely patriarchal societies in India. It looks at debates over age and rights; the status of the girl child; the causes and consequences of being vulnerable; various aspects of welfare and protection and the cultural relativism and violation of human rights of girls and women. An important volume on human rights, this book will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners of gender studies, sociology of the family, human rights, law and civil liberties, development studies, socio-legal studies, and sociology and social policy.

"Updated with an epilogue ..."--P. [4] of cover.

Growing up as a strong-headed single child with a privileged upbringing in Calcutta, Devi has learnt much from her surroundings. Her childhood memories are filled with mixed emotions - especially as she remains angry with her mother and the hypocrisy of women in India.On an unexpected journey home, she encounters reality - new stories and experiences of strangers, as well as friends. It has been years since she left Calcutta, yet the city's untold stories haunt her. This time Devi is back in town to solve issues and above all, through some painful and hard revelations, to make peace with those she can.

At what age do girls gain the maturity to make sexual choices? This question provokes especially vexed debates in India, where early marriage is a widespread practice. India has served as a focal problem site in NGO campaigns and intergovernmental conferences setting age standards for sexual maturity. Over the last century, the country shifted the legal age of marriage from twelve, among the lowest in the world, to eighteen, at the high end of the global spectrum. Ashwini Tambe illuminates the ideas that shaped such shifts: how the concept of adolescence as a sheltered phase led to delaying both marriage and legal adulthood; how the imperative of population control influenced laws on marriage age; and how imperial moral hierarchies between nations provoked defensive postures within India. Tambe takes a transnational feminist approach to legal history, showing how intergovernmental debates influenced Indian laws and how expert discourses in India changed UN terminology about girls. Ultimately, Tambe argues, the well-meaning focus on child marriage has been tethered less to the interests of girls themselves and more to parents’ interests, achieving population control targets, and preserving national reputation.

Legislation is one of the most important tools for empowering children. It reflects the commitment of the state to promote an ideal and progressive value system. Recent years have seen several key developments in the law, policy, and practice related to child rights. Significantly, with the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, a rights-based approach has acquired prominence in the child rights discourse across the world. The book analyses the laws in the light of court judgments and policy initiatives taken in India. It also examines the interventions and strategies employed by non-governmental organizations in recommending legislative reforms in support of children. This fully revised third edition focuses on the new legal developments in India—such as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015; the new Central Adoption Resource Agency guidelines; the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009; and the National Food Security Act, 2013—thus attempting to integrate the law in theory and field practice.

Transforming the Lives of Impoverished Girls in Patriarchal Societies Since 2003 a privately funded high school in India has provided desperately needed education for girls from impoverished families in Lucknow, the capital and largest city in Uttar Pradesh. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of Prerna Girls School, has written a compelling narrative of how this modest school in northeast India has changed the lives of more than 5,000 girls and their families. Most important, it is through the perspectives of the girls themselves, rather than through a remote academic viewpoint, that Prerna’s success unfolds. The book focuses on the importance of education in bringing about gender equality in a patriarchal society. It shows how girls learn to be equal and autonomous persons in school as part of their official curriculum and how they use this learning to transform their lives and those of their families. The book’s central argument is that education can be truly transformative if it addresses the everyday reality of girls’ lives and responds to their special needs and challenges with respect and care. The example of just one relatively small school in one corner of India, the message and the stories it tells will inspire anyone concerned about the necessity of girls’ education, especially in developing countries. The lives of the girls at Prerna Girls School are largely representative of those of millions living in poor regions in countries where patriarchal structures and norms prevail.

This Book Presents The Research Findings Of Action Research On Trafficking In Women And Children In India (Artwac) That Involved The United Nations Development Fund For Women, The National Human Rights Commission And The Institute Of Social Sciences. Through A Human Rights Perspective, The First Section Of This Book Analyses The Data Generated By Artwac And Gives Detailed Recommendations For Better Judicial Interventions, Law Enforcement And Community Participation In Anti-Trafficking Strategies. The Second Section Contains A Rich Collection Of Case Studies, Giving An On-Ground Picture Of How Exploiters Have Little Or No Respect For The Rights Of Trafficking Victims.

This Book, Based On The 2004 National Consultation Organized By Human Rights Law Network, Haq, Establishes That The Incidences And Causes Of Child Marriages Haven`T Been Documented Adequately, And That The Position Of Law Itself Is Dubious.

The State of the World's Children 2011: Adolescence - An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

The present work is concerned with problems of girl child, their exploitation, discrimination, disparity in education and health sector, sex determination tests, sex-ratio and their serious implications in India in the global frame. Both Primary and secondary sources of data have been accumulated and used for analysis and interpretation in making the study more interesting and useful. Contents: Introduction, Exploitation of Girl Child in Indian States, Girl Child and Disparity in Education, Neglect of Girl Child in Health Sector, Human Rights and the Girl Child, Conclusion.