Details of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights's Annual Report Years 2007 - 2008. HAQ: Center for Child Rights B1/2, Ground Floor, Malviya Nagar New Delhi - 110017 Tel: +91-26677412,26673599 Fax: +91-26674688 Website: www.haqcrc.org FaceBook Page: https://www.facebook.com/HaqCentreForChildRights

1. ANNUAL REPORT
2007-08
(updated upto March2008)
208 Shahpurjat, New Delhi – 110049
Tel: +91-11-26490136
Telefax: +91-11-26492551
E-mail: info@haqcrc.org
Website: www.haqcrc.org

2. 1
ANNUAL REPORT
JANUARY 2007 – MARCH 2008
HAQ: Centre for Child Rights is now moving towards the 10th
year of its existence. This
is an important period in the life of an organisation in terms of its institutional growth
and performance. It is also the time to stabilise and plug the existing gaps.
In the years since its inception, each year has added one more area to HAQ’s work- those
that have been initiated by us on our own such as the budget analysis from a child rights
perspective, now known as Budget for Children or BfC; status reports on children,
parliament watch and those that we were asked to take on. HAQ’s work on child
trafficking for which it has now developed an expertise and niche, began as projects for
terre des hommes (Germany) and UNICEF ROSA, when we undertook documentation
of child trafficking in India and South Asia. Slowly it grew to become a full-fledged
activity of HAQ, in so much that we hosted the CACT national secretariat for 4 years.
The legal resource centre and the legal aid work we now undertake grew out of the
urgent need for legal aid for children that we found, and requests that we received for
legal assistance. Today Juvenile Justice is an integral part of our child protection work.
Our direct intervention in the legal system enables us to undertake our action research on
the judicial processes related to children and gives us hands on experience, enabling us to
intervene in policy debates in a more informed manner.
Though the areas in which HAQ intervenes has spread, we stick to our focus and
mission – that to be a child rights resource centre, engaged in research and
documentation, policy advocacy, capacity building and public education. Clearly as an
organisation we too are slowly building our capacity to monitor state performance in the
realisation of child rights, and draw from these recommendations for policy advocacy
both at the national as well as the international level.
In the last two years, we had decided for purposes of convenience and clarity to divide
the work that we do into two distinct programmes- Children and Governance and Child
Protection.
Our initiatives on Budget for Children (BfC), monitoring the legislature and the status
reports are all part of HAQ’s Children and Governance Programme, as is the monitoring
of judiciary- although it is undertaken as part of the legal resource centre. The work on
child trafficking, juvenile justice and legal aid for children – victims of abuse and
exploitation and those in conflict with law – is part of the Child Protection Programme.
For purposes of further clarity in execution, the leadership of these programmes too
have been decided between the two co-Directors. While Bharti Ali leads the child
protection initiatives, Enakshi Ganguly takes a lead on the Children and Governance
Programme. Needless to say they fill in for each other whenever required.
This report however, is presented according to each activity undertaken by HAQ.

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Budget for Children (BfC)1
HAQ began its work on child budget analysis in 2000. In the past seven years, since we
began budget analysis, this work has grown both within HAQ as well as spread into
other organisations and institutions including Government of India.
The consolidated report of Union Budget and three states is finally printed and is being
disseminated.
Union Budget
Quick Budget Analysis
Every year HAQ: Centre for Child Rights undertakes a quick analysis of the Budget as
soon as it is presented. This
year too such an analysis was
undertaken as soon as the
budget for 2007-08 was
presented by the Finance
Minister, Mr. Chidambaram.
The report, this year has drawn
attention from various quarters
such as the Right to Food
Campaign, the
Ministry itself, and
has received good
press coverage in
some of the leading
national papers.
Infochange - a
development news
portal covered the
report. It is also
available on the
websites of E-socialsciences, CRIN an international network of child rights.
The Analysis was circulated to a wide range of NGOs across the country. It was
presented at the “World Fit for children” workshop organised by the India Alliance for
Child Rights and “Problem of Tribal Children in Andhra Pradesh” organised by
SAMATA, as well as Plan India Strategy workshop at New Delhi.
1
Up until now, the term in use – both nationally and internationally – for such analysis was Child Budget or Children’s
Budget. From this point onwards however, the more appropriate term ‘Budget for Children’ (BfC) will be used by
HAQ. While the meaning of the earlier description could be taken to suggest the participation of children – which is
not the case at all – the term now chosen does away with this unintended suggestion.

4. 3
The 200-09 Budget was presented by Shri
Chidambaram on the 29th
of February. This time the
HAQ team was prepared with not just a template, but
also a cover page and introduction. By 10 PM on the
29th
of February, we were able to send out the first
round of mails carrying our analysis. The comments
have been covered by newspapers
During the day, as the Finance Minister was presenting
the budget, Percy Billimoria, on of the expert
panellists on India TV kept texting to take feedback
from the HAQ team which he then used for his
comments on TV.
.
Preceding this Enakshi Ganguly was invited by the Ministry of Women and Child
Development to be part of a team led by the Minister to meet the Finance Minister on
the 18th
of February 2008. At this meeting she handed over a letter addressed to him,
listing out the main issues of concern (See annexure).
State Budget
Budget analysis work in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Himachal Pradesh (HP) is a
continuation of the last phase, which was also undertaken with support of FORD
FOUNDATION. The partners continue to be M.V. Foundation and Himachal Pradesh
Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA). In West Bengal, HAQ is partnering with
Society for People’s Awareness (SPAN). The work in Orissa has been discontinued in
this phase. Work has also been initiated in Assam (in partnership with North East Social
Research Centre) and Uttar Pradesh (CREDA) with financial support from Sir Dorabjee
Tata Trust. Work is also continuing in Jharkhand (in partnership with CREJ) with
financial support from CRY.
In the last phase of our work it became clear that the partner organisation needs time to
understand process of budgeting and establishing linkages between budgets with child
rights. Accessing data and information remains a challenge.
This phase of our work was planned very cautiously keeping in mind our previous
experiences. The HAQ team has regular visits to the states, working with the partner
organisations on methodology, data entry and analysis. The reports in all the states are in
the draft stage and will be released to the public before the budget sessions in the states.
Our experience of this work over the years has shown us that:
• It takes some time to identify a partners who are interested in budget work, have
a mandate to work on children and governance and also have the capacity to take
on the advocacy work based on this research. Although extremely enthusiastic to
begin with, there is always a drop in efficiency after the data entry begins as this
work appears very tedious and monotonous. It also requires a certain skill which
most organisations do not have.

5. 4
• Turnover of programme staff in HAQ as well as in the partner organisations
results in setbacks and delays. It means investing time and resources in re-
training.
• Accessing government data on which child budget analysis is based is an
enormous challenge, both because of the unwillingness of the concerned
departments to part with information or simply the unavailability of this
information with them.
• Even after having come to an agreement on the need and method, it takes a fairly
long time for the organisations to actually become technically equipped to
function independently and actually undertake the data entry and analysis.
Himachal Pradesh
The Budget for Children report was released on 26 November 2007. The Governor of
the State, Shri V. S. Kokje was the chief guest for the day. There were representatives
from various departments of the government. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Madhumita
Purkayastha and Abhijeet Nirmal from HAQ made a presentation.
Assam
The report was released on 30th
of January
2008. It has also been translated into Assamese.
HAQ’spartners, North Eastern Social Research
Centre organised the release.
The follow-up to the release of the report has
been very important, as an alliance has been
formed to advocate for better allocations and
expenditures on children in the state. There was
wide media coverage following the release of
the report both in print as well as in the electronic media.
Andhra Pradesh
The release of the Budget for
Children Report was
organised by MV. Foundation,
our partner in AP to coincide
with their convention of the
members of the child
protection forum from the
various states on 77h
of
February at Hyderabad.
Three MLAs from the AP
legislature, along with Dr.
Shantha Sinha, Chairperson
National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights
were present. The MLAs
promised to take this issue on as part of their own agenda.

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However, what followed was even more heartening. APCRAF, Vijaywada based
NGO and network decided to take on the issue of Budgets for Children in AP and
start a campaign on this issue involving NGOs, children and others. The launch of the
campaign was on March 14 2008.
West Bengal
The Budget for Children in West Bengal report was prepared by our partner organisation
SPAN in Kolkata. It was released in Kolkata on the 27th
of February by the West Bengal
by the Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission, Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen.
Orissa
Open Learning System (OLS) was HAQ’s partner in the last phase of our child budget
work. They had not been included in the third phase to begin with, but have now voiced
their wish to continue child budget analysis work with HAQ. Currently they are
partnering with CBGA and have also been able to put together a team in their office.
Uttar Pradesh
The child budget work in UP has been very slow in progressing as our partner CREDA,
although extremely effective in action is not strong on research and analysis. This has led
to some delay in the project. However, the final draft is being written up now.
Jharkhand
The child budget work in Jharkhand has had a very slow progress.
But it now seems we can look forward to the final report will be
ready in the next fortnight.
Submission to the UN Special Day of Hearing on Right to
Adequate Resources
This year the theme for the General Day of Discussion was,
“Resources for the Rights of the Child-Responsibility of States”.
HAQ sent in its submission– India’s Financial Commitments to the Child’.

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Enakshi Ganguly attended the Day of General Discussion on 21 September 2007 on
behalf of HAQ. UNICEF-India supported her travel costs. A handout- Brand India- No
equity for Children- was distributed to the participants. In her deliberation, she drew
attention to the need for investing in civil and political rights. She spoke of the
importance of identity since 35 per cent of children in India do not have birth
registration. This never gets reported in budget analysis, and the information is not
readily available. Many children grow up in conflict, and are denied services, but no
special budgets are allocated. She added that countries are always reporting investments
in children, but specific age groups are not identified and separated. She also pointed out
that countries only report on their allocation and not how much of the allocation was
actually spent.
Software for Budget Analysis
With the expansion of budget work in the states, we have decided to have a customised
programme for analysing Budget for Children (BfC). The programme will help us in
terms of reducing the time presently required to do all the entry and calculation
mechanically. With the programme in place much of the quality can be devoted to do the
analytical part making the whole process much more speedy and effective. After a series
of meetings and input sharing with the HAQ team, the programmers have been able to
develop software. The programme is now being tested at HAQ.
National Workshop of Budget Analysis Organisations of India:
A workshop was organised by BARC in Jaipur Rajasthan on 23 to 25 February 2007 for
sharing information and strengthening the budget analysis work being undertaken by
various organisations in the country. HAQ participated as premiere organisation doing
child budget analysis and presented child budget work in India.
Volume on Children and Governance
Work has started on the compilation of an edited volume on Children and Governance.
Contributions from this are being invited from experts and activists from across the
world. Routledge India has already given in principle a “letter of interest” for the book
based on the concept note we sent them. The contributors are internationally
acknowledged experts from various countries of the world.
Child Atlas
After a setback when the consultant appointed to work on the Child Atlas failed to
deliver, delaying it by a year, the work on it has finally begun. Three new consultants are
working on it with the HAQ team. Suddhasil Siddhanta and Debashish Nandy two
researchers cum cartographers have been commissioned for the child atlas work in
November 2007. They have already shared with us the first matrix of the child atlas.
They are supposed to share the first set of Maps by 1st
March. Simultaneously, Tripta
Batra, also a consultant, is working on the analysis and text.
Legislative Advocacy
Legislative advocacy is an integral part of the children and governance programme in
HAQ. Other than the regular analysis of the sessions of the Parliament we also try to

8. 7
maintain a rapport with the parliamentarians by feeding them with information they
require, providing them with the background information for raising any questions in the
Parliament. We also approach them with questions, which we want to be raised in the
Parliament. This year Mr. Ravi Prakash Verma had invited inputs from us on the
implementation of SSA in the country, as he wanted to move a calling attention motion.
Every year, HAQ along with six
regions across the world as partners in
the International Campaign against
Child Trafficking (IcaCT), observes 12
December as the Global Day Against
Child Trafficking (GDCT). This 12
December, to remind ourselves and
reiterate our commitment to the
millions of children who contribute to
our day-to-day existence, sustenance,
pleasure and emotional balance as
domestic helps and other forms of
labour, circus acrobats, prostitutes,
young brides, infants in adoption etc.,
HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, in partnership with CACT- Delhi, organised a round
table with Parliamentarians - Parliamentarians for Children- PfC, at the India Habitat
Centre, New Delhi. The objective of the round table was to generate increased
discussion on children’s issues within and outside Parliament. The three main issues that
were discussed were:
Ratification of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, by India
Trafficking of children for labour – need for a Protocol to ensure proper care and
protection of children while planning a rescue operation - pre-rescue, during the
rescue and post-rescue
Establishing an effective and long-term connection between Parliamentarians and the
civil society for protection of child rights
In the whole process, HAQ team got the chance to
interact personally with many of the Parliamentarians.
Though all of them could not make for the event of
12 December, most of them due to Gujarat election,
all of them have asked to share the out come of the
round table discussion and expressed their
willingness to be associated with any process initiated
thereon. To carry on the process forward a
questionnaire has been developed for the
parliamentarians to get their view on the relevance of
a process like PfC. The questionnaire will also help
us to know their priority areas of concern w.r.t
children, particularly in their constituencies. The facts
thus generated will help us to provide customised
information to the Parliamentarians.

9. 8
In 2006, we were unable to maintain the consistency in terms of bringing out our regular
publication analysing the Parliament Sessions, ‘Says a Child who Speaks for My Rights’. We
had printed a hand out on Parliamentarians for Children highlighting the issues being
raised in the Parliament for the period 2003 to 2006. The booklet based on the
Parliament in Monsoon and Winter Sessions, 2006 is now published.
We are in the process of analysing all the three sessions of the Parliament in 2007.
Monitoring the Judiciary and Advocating for Child-friendly Judicial Processes
HAQ has been regularly visiting the Juvenile Justice Board in Delhi as part of its efforts
at monitoring the judiciary and advocating for child-friendly judicial processes. So far the
visits have been limited to spending some time with the children in conflict with law
while they await their turn in the waiting room. As required by the Principal Magistrate,
HAQ had submitted a proposal to engage with the children in the observation homes in
a creative and productive way.
Justice Madan Lokur, Chairperson of the Monitoring Committee on Juvenile Justice,
appointed by the Delhi High Court, approached HAQ seeking inputs on improving the
implementation of the juvenile justice system. He has called HAQ to help in the
documentation of the case profiles of the children as per a format developed by the
Committee.
Information collected in the last two and a half years as part of the action-research
undertaken by HAQ with support from CORDAID and the interim reports prepared by
way of various submissions made by HAQ such as the one sent to the UN CRC
Committee or to the High Court appointed Monitoring Committee on Juvenile Justice,
are all being compiled for final analysis and publication, which will come out by the end
of April 2008.
In the course of this action research, HAQ has not only helped children seek social
justice, but has also used its experiences for policy advocacy, including formulation of the
Central Model Rules on Juvenile Justice, the new Integrated Programme for Child
Protection of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
HAQ has also been sharing the gaps in the law and its implementation with the
concerned authorities and suggesting ways of removing the bottlenecks in various ways.
Addressing such matters during training sessions with the police and judicial magistrates
as well as in the training kits prepared for such purposes, appealing against orders of the
JJB in higher courts, lobbying with NGOs working with children, assisting police and
courts in actual case work, making submissions and meeting up with the concerned
authorities have been some efforts in this direction.
HAQ’s action research has also played an instrumental role in the completion of a book
on juvenile justice in India, written by Ruzbeh Bharucha. The book is in the process of
being published and will be available to the public soon.
HAQ has been advocating for rehabilitation of children in conflict with law. As part of
our initiative to “walk the talk”, we have taken in one of the children whom we have

10. 9
been providing legal support to as an office assistant to provide him an opportunity to be
re-integrated into society, and not fall back into crime.
Capacity Building
HAQ has since its very inception been engaged in training and capacity building. This
was carried forward in 2007. The subject of our training continues to be child rights,
child trafficking and Juvenile Justice. In the next year, apart from NGOs, teachers and
police etc., it is planned that HAQ will also begin training of judiciary.
A three-day TOT workshop was organized in Karnataka in partnership with CACT
Karnataka from 29th
to 31st
March 2007, which was attended by 57 participants from
various NGOs across the State; with resource persons from various disciplines like legal
fraternity, senior activists, researchers, and experienced professionals.
On the 1st
, 2nd
and 3rd
of August 2007, a three-day training programme on Child
Trafficking and Juvenile Justice Act was organized in Shillong, Meghalaya, the north
eastern state in India. This was in collaboration with Impulse NGO Network that hosts
the CACT State Secretariat for Meghalaya. The training was meant for the members of
Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board and NGOs working for children. There
were altogether 36 participants from 5 districts of Meghalaya.
The highlights of the TOT programmes
included a basic understanding of child rights,
India’s commitments and the UNCRC,
understanding and dealing with child trafficking,
understanding the juvenile justice law and using
it effectively while handling matters concerning
children. Besides enhanced understanding of
the subject and the law, an important outcome
of the training has been action plans developed
by the participants for their particular district
and the activities and programmes that they would carry on within three months, 6
months and one-year time frame.
Till March HAQ has been a resource organisation for 45 (24 in December and 21 from
January to March) police trainings on child trafficking and juvenile justice. HAQ’s
police training is a regular and continuous activity based on the need of and demand
from the police department and partner NGOs. Besides the regular weekly trainings that
HAQ conducts every Thursday with various levels of police personnel from the South

11. 10
District Police Stations at their HRD Cell situated in the Chittaranjan Park Police Station,
HAQ has also been a resource organisation for some police trainings organised by other
NGOs such Chetna.
HAQ has also been invited to be resource group at the Delhi Judicial Academy in
January and more recently in April. The training was for Magistrates (in January) and will
be for Sessions Judges (in April) on Juvenile Justice and Child abuse and Child sexual
abuse in April.
In addition, a one-day orientation programme was organized on the issue of child
trafficking and the law to orient all the organisations that decided to join in the 12th
December public awareness programme as part of the Global Day Against Child
Trafficking called for by the International Campaign against Child Trafficking (ICaCT)
and the India Campaign Against Child Trafficking (CACT). Besides being resource
persons, HAQ’s contribution to trainings organized by the police department or NGO
partners includes development and distribution of training materials. HAQ also bears its
own travel expenses for these programmes, unless paid for by the organizers.
Preparation of Hindi Manual on Combating Child Trafficking
Due to some problems with the Hindi translation
done by a partner organisation in Bihar, the
translation required complete reworking. As a
result the printing was delayed. Since there is a
great demand for the Hindi manual from NGO
partners, 1000 copies are in print.
Legal Support
This year legal aid, counselling and/or advice was
provided in 47 cases (with support from BMZ-10
cases, EU - 7 fresh ones and 2 ongoing making it
12 in all; and CORD-AID-27 cases- 18 fresh and 9
ongoing). Out of these, in one case the HAQ
team, based on its expertise was invited by the
Ministry of Women and Child development to be
part of the team set up by the Ministry for an
investigation into a case of sexual abuse of a 10
year old by school authorities. HAQ’s legal aid
programme has expanded this year and addressed
not only situations of trafficked children but also
children who are vulnerable to it, given their
circumstances.
Here are some highlights:
Action results in High Court Guidelines
HAQ’s intervention in a case of child sexual abuse leading to the formulation of High
Court guidelines is particularly significant.

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Having failed to have the statement of the seven-year-old child victim recorded under
Section 164 of the CrPC, HAQ wrote to Justice Madan Lokur of the Delhi High Court,
who is the Chairperson of the High Court Committee on Juvenile Justice and has
therefore been closely in touch with HAQ. He forwarded this application to Justice
Sodhi (now retired) who took suo-moto congnizance of the case, leading to the
formulations of the guidelines in which HAQ collaborated closely with the NHRC.
Sexual Abuse in Little Fairy Public School (Member of Government’s
Investigating Team)
Bharti Ali was part of the Committee set up by the Secretary/MWCD (Ministry of
Women and Child Development) as desired by MOS/MWCD for enquiring into the
alleged incident of sexual abuse in Little Fairy Public School, New Delhi. A report was
prepared and handed over to the concerned Minister on the basis on the inquiry
conducted by this Committee - consisting of Dr. Loveleen Kacker, Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) as Chairperson, Ms. Deepa Dixit,
Member, National Commission, for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Bharti Ali,
Co-Director, HAQ, as members, and Ms. Kalyani Chadha, Director (Child Welfare), as
Convenor. Subsequently the Minister called upon the Committee members to discuss the
report and decide the future course of action. As a result of this inquiry appropriate
guidelines have been drafted with respect to matters concerning child sexual abuse. The
Minister will share these with the Department of Education and will also write to the
Home Ministry for adequate and fair investigations. Since the matter is sub-judice, the
verdict of the court shall be final. As per the recommendations of the Committee, the
Minister has advised the parents of the child to undergo counselling themselves along
with counselling for their child, as that would help them cope with the situation better.
The child has already been shifted to a new school.
Multi –pronged approach to legal justice
Based on information provided by a concerned policewoman, who had participated in
one of our regular Thursday trainings, about a baby being sold into adoption after rape
of a minor girl, HAQ contacted CNN-IBN (Special Investigation Team). This
policewoman was concerned about the inaction by her own colleagues and she herself
could not act because it did not happen to fall within the jurisdiction of her police
station. The CNN-IBN team conducted a special investigation.
The facts of the case were bone chilling. Young girls were being trafficked from
Jharkhand for employment in domestic work by a “registered placement agency”.
Needless to say sexual abuse is rampant. In this case Susheela was brought from
Jharkhand. She got pregnant (although the placement agency would like us to believe she
was already pregnant when she came to them) after being raped when she was with the
agency. The child that was born was sold into adoption with the help of the agency and a
lawyer. The HAQ team guided the CNN-IBN team through out, including having an
FIR lodged and ensuring that the relevant provisions in law were put in. HAQ has been
following the case in the High Court.

13. 12
Sessions Judge gets innovative
The Sessions Judge while speaking to child was reminded by our lawyer of the Sakshi
Judgement, and the High Court Guidelines about the process of speaking to a child
victim in camera; wherein the child does not get intimidated by the presence of the
accused. Unfortunately, our courts do not have the required infrastructure to be able to
provide the privacy that is required. However, acknowledging the importance of this
requirement, the District and Sessions Judge hearing the case, placed a computer
between the child and the accused, so that the child would hot be able to see the accused
and get frightened and intimidated. This shows, that if sensitised, and if the judges so
wish, they can be innovative even with scarce resources.
HAQ currently has four lawyers on its panel besides one in-house lawyer. Out of five
lawyers who had initially committed themselves to be on the panel, three have not been
active. As a result we have had to look at taking on some new lawyers on the panel. The
present panel consists of Mr. Virender Chowdhury, who takes up Juvenile Justice
matters, Ms. Kiran Singh and Mr. Karthikeya who are High Court lawyers and Mr. Saif
Mahmood, a High Court and Supreme Court lawyer. Ms. Kiran Singh and Mr.
Karthikeya are paid on case-to-case basis. Mr. Saif Mahmood has also expressed the
desire to be paid on a case-to-case basis and has so far not charged HAQ for any legal
expenses, even though he is presently helping us with a case of a child in conflict with
law. The in-house lawyer is Mr. Vipin Bhatt.
It is difficult to find lawyers willing to dedicate adequate time to issues of juvenile justice
or for that matter any children’s issue in lower courts. Moreover, those who are willing to
take up cases want to get a retainership and also want to work on the condition that all
the ground work for the case will be prepared by HAQ, while they will only prepare the
legal papers and appear for the child based on information provided by HAQ. One of
the problems mentioned by children in conflict with law with long pending cases is that
they have had different lawyers appearing for them, which implies that lawyers do not
stick and follow the case through; they keep changing. Juvenile justice is clearly not an
attractive area for practicing lawyers. However, recognising the need for building a cadre
of child rights lawyers, HAQ plans to revise its strategy and rope in Universities/Colleges
as well as Corporate Law firms.
Policy Advocacy
The Government of India has recognized HAQ and its work and has on several
occasions invited HAQ’s contributions on important policy matters.
Enakshi and Bharti have been on several important Committees constituted by the
Government. Enakshi was on the Steering Committee set up by the Planning
Commission for the XIth Five-Year Plan. Bharti was part of the Working Group for
Child Protection set up by the Ministry of Women and Child Development for the XIth
Five Year Plan and was later a member of the Drafting Committee that finalized the
Ministry’s Working Group Report on Child development for submission to the Planning
Commission.
Bharti was a member of the Drafting Committee set up by the Ministry for revision of
the Central (Model) Rules on Juvenile Justice and was also invited to be a member of the
Drafting Committee set up to evolve guidelines for the functioning of orphanages and

14. 13
shelter homes for children, which was later dismantled as these guidelines were included
in the Central (Model) Rules on Juvenile Justice itself.
HAQ refused the invitation to be on the Drafting Committee set up for finalizing
Government of India’s National Study on Child Abuse, because HAQ had earlier
expressed its dissatisfaction on the tools and methods proposed to be used for research
and was concerned about the ethics of research on such a sensitive subject.
HAQ was part of the NGO group consulted for drafting the new Integrated Child
Protection Scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Yet there are
many challenges to overcome in ensuring transparency and wider consultation from the
Government.
HAQ has been invited to be part of the drafting group for the Offences against Children
Bill as well as the National Policy for Children that has not been revised since 1974.
Networking with Media
HAQ has been networking with the media on a regular basis to ensure coverage of child
rights issues. Over the years we find that while it is possible to get them to take up issue
based stories, it is very difficult for us to get them top cover events. While they approach
HAQ for comments and interviews and even information on a regular basis, placing
stories on our own remains a challenge. To that extent, the coverage received on the
analysis of the budget was indeed very encouraging.
Post Nithari, where several children fell prey to sexual abuse and were killed off by the
offenders, the media engaged in several debates and discussions on child protection. On
18 January 2007 Bharti Ali was called as an expert for a chat show on child rights and
child protection broadcast by DD News. On 4th
of January, Enakshi was part of the
panel interviewed by Karan Thapar on India Tonight on the basis of the Focus Report.
She was also interviewed by Murli Krishanan for a radio in Netherlands (March)
following the release of Government’s study on child abuse. Bharti was interviewed on
Meow Radio on 14 November and DD news to talk about New Year’s Eve for Street
Children. Both Vipin and Enakshi were invited on to a show on Janmat TV to speak on
child labour. Tahniyat Sidiqi made her debut on ‘Pragya’, a new channel started recently.
Like the previous year, in 2007 too HAQ has consistently networked with CNN-IBN on
reporting some serious cases of child abuse and exploitation. HAQ has also been
instrumental in linking CNN-IBN with other NGOs working on child protection issues.
Audio-visual on child trafficking: As part of
an EU project, HAQ has made a 30 second spot
on child trafficking. The spot was made by Mr.
Avijit Dutt. It was on a kiosk at the Dilli Haat
for sometime. HAQ plans to take it to cinema
halls and TV channels, and has requested Mr.
Jyoti Sarma, who comes from the
communications and advertising field, to help in
this regard.

15. 14
Bitter Chocolate staged in Lucknow
HAQ staged Bitter Chocolate, a solo
performance by Lushin Dubey at Lucknow in
partnership with AALI, with financial support
from The Royal Norwegian Embassy. The
response to the play was amazing, as was the
coverage in the media. We are really grateful to
AALI-Lucknow for the tremendous effort they
put in.
On March 12, 2008, HAQ once again organised
the staging of the play –this time at the Sri Ram
Centre, Delhi. The play was performed to a
packed hall followed by a very good discussion
wherein the panel consisted of Dr. Shantha
Sinha (Chairperson, NCPCR); Justice Madan
Lokur (Delhi High Court and Chairperson of
the High Court Committee for Monitoring
Juvenile Justice); Dr. Amit Sen (Psychiatrist,
Dr. Siatram Bhartiya Hospital specialising in
children and adolescent behaviour) and
Anuja Gupta (Executive Director, RAHI
Foundation).
Miscellaneous
Child Marriage Protocol for GOI - HAQ was commissioned to prepare a protocol for
the implementation of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2007 by GOI-UNICEF.
Children and Housing – A handbook on children and housing has been prepared with
the help of a consultant and is now in the final stages of editing and design.
KOORA - Bharti Ali was part of the Regional Partners’ Meet of tdh (Germany) South
Committee of tdh (Germany). This Committee, called the KOORA, is an advisory body
to the tdh Board. The experience of KOORA brings insights into the ongoing struggle of
International NGOs like tdh to sustain themselves in the wake of changes in the
European market, the resulting gap between the needs of the organisation and its
partners and the shrinking spaces for dialogue and participation of the partner
community in developing the larger development agenda of International NGOs.
FOCUS Report - HAQ contributed to the FOCUS report of the Right to Food
Campaign.
UNODC Compendium on good practices for combating trafficking of women
and children – HAQ was approached by UNODC to prepare a Best Practice
Compendium based on experiences and work of Organisations engaged in combating

16. 15
trafficking of women and children. The compendium is in two parts, one that highlights
NGO-Corporate sector partnership and other that focuses on effective and sustainable
strategies in the area of prevention, protection, prosecution, rescue and rehabilitation.
The Compendium is part of series of Best Practice Compendiums being published by
UNODC.
Ladli: a book on the girl child - HAQ has supported photographer and writer Fazal
Sheikh in bringing out his book on the girl child in India. This book entitled Ladli has
been published. It is available on www.fazalsheikh.org.
Visit by Frances Sheehan
Ms. Frances Sheahan, a lawyer specialising in children's rights was commissioned as a
consultant by The African Child Policy Forum, a pan-African policy and advocacy centre
in child rights, to document good practices in children's legal protection centers (CLPCs)
in Africa and Asia. Although the organisation focussed principally on Africa, they were
keen to involve some global learning from Asia in addition. As part of this endeavour
Ms. Sheahan visited HAQ to gain an understanding about our work, strengths,
experience, knowledge and good practices that can be shared with other child law centres
internationally. During her visit Ms. Sheahan interacted with HAQ staff as well as some
of the parents whose children have been provided legal assistance and policy makers and
implementers that HAQ works with in close cooperation, including Ms. Loveleen
Kacker, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Justice Madan Lokur,
Chairperson of the High appointed Monitoring Committee on Juvenile Justice and Dr.
Bharti Sharma, Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee, Nirmal Chhaya. HAQ awaits Ms.
Sheahan’s final report, as it will provide yet another reflection on our work the way it is
seen and understood by others.
Organisational Development and Strategic Planning
HAQ has also undergone a four-day Result Based Management training as part of OD
and strategic planning from the 17 to the 20 of December. It was attended by all HAQ
staff, programme as well as administration. The workshop was conducted by ASK with
support from Cordaid. It was a joint need of both HAQ and Cordaid, a Netherlands
based donor agency that supports HAQ.
HAQ TEAM
• Enakshi Ganguly – Co-Director
• Bharti Ali – Co-Director
• Vipin Bhatt – Programme Co-ordinator (Child Protection)
• Madhumita Purkayastha – Programme Officer (Children and Governance)
• Abhijeet Nirmal – Programme Officer (till September 2007) (Children and
Governance)
• Tahniyat Sidiqi - Programme Officer (Child Protection)
• Neena Sharma- Administrator
• Preeti Singh - Accountant
• Aditya Kumar- Administrative Assistant

17. 16
HAQ BOARD
• Urvashi Butalia - President
• Jaya Shrivastava- Treasurer
• Susmit Bose- Member
• Miloon Kothari – Member

18. 17
Less funds for children in State Budgets
By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Jan 31 – Non-allocation or decreased allocation for certain
schemes meant for the children in the State budget may pose threat to their
survival and development. Moreover, there is relatively lower allocation for
handicapped, SC, ST, OBC and girl children in the State budget.
These facts came to light during an analysis of the Assam Budget for the
period between 2004-05 and 2007-08 fiscals carried out by the voluntary
groups North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) of the city and the HAQ
Centre for Child Rights, which is based in New Delhi.
It is found that of every hundred rupees allocated in the State budget for the
year 2007-08, Rs 5.38 has been provided for children, who constitute 43.3
per cent of the State’s population. During the fiscal, while the budget
allocation for the children rose by 3.9 per cent, the State budget went up by
93.12 per cent as compared to the 2006-07 fiscal.
This gap between the two has led to a decline in the budgetary allocations for
the children in comparison to the overall State budget by 4.61 per cent.
Pranami Garg of the NESRC and Madhumita Purakayastha of the HAQ Centre,
carried out the analysis. Presenting the analysis, Pranami Garg at a seminar
here yesterday, she said that there had been a slight decline in the male:
female sex ratio among the children of the State. She also said that in 2007-
08 the outlay on education and nutrition of the children had been reduced.
While the outlay on education had gone down by 3 per cent, that on social
welfare and nutrition had been cut drastically by 45 per cent to Rs 384 crore
in 2007-08 from Rs 833 crore in 2006-07, said the analysis.
On an average, 8.79 per cent children in the State have failed to receive
adequate attention from the policy makers during 2004-05 to 2007-08. In
2007-08 the State’s budgetary allocation for children is the lowest at 5.38 per
cent, it said.
Citing the Assam Sarba Siksha Abhijan Mission (ASSAM) figures, the analysis
said that 13.4 lakh of the 24.39 per cent of the children in the age group of 6-
14 years in the State were out of school in 2001. A separate study carried out
in 2003, showed that 43 per cent of the present and past tea garden
labourers are out of school, it said.
Later, members of the voluntary groups present in the seminar, decided to
use the budget for children analysis for advocacy before and during the
budget session. They also decided to meet on February 8 next to work out the
advocacy strategy.
They will also be meeting the Legislative Assembly Members, Bureaucrats and
other policy makers as part of their pre budget advocacy.

19. 18
The HAQ and the NESRC have undertaken the exercise to know the actual
picture concerning the commitment of the State Government towards the
welfare of the children.
The HAQ has been analysing the Central budget for the purpose for the past
eight years. It has also been undertaking similar exercises to analyse the
state budgets of several states in association with the voluntary organisations
of the states concerned, said Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Director of the HAQ
Centre.