This annual report summarizes the work of HAQ Centre for Child Rights from 2008-2009. Some key points: - HAQ has been working to promote child rights in India for 10 years through activities like budget analysis for children, tracking government spending on child welfare schemes, publishing reports on the status of children, and providing legal aid. - In 2008, the Indian government for the first time included a separate statement on children in the national budget, which HAQ had advocated for through meetings with the Finance Minister. - HAQ's budget analysis work also influences national planning documents and the formulation of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme. - In 2009, HAQ released its third national status report on

1. ANNUAL REPORT
2008-09
208 Shahpurjat, New Delhi – 110049
Tel: +91-11-26490136
Telefax: +91-11-26492551
E-mail: info@haqcrc.org
Website: www.haqcrc.org

2. 1
“We will score another 'first' this
year. A statement on child related
schemes is included in the budget
documents and Honourable
Members will be happy to note
that the total expenditure on these
schemes is of the order of Rs.
33,434 crore.”
… P. Chidambaram, Budget
2008-2009
“We will score another 'first' this
year. A statement on child related
schemes is included in the budget
documents and Honourable
Members will be happy to note
that the total expenditure on these
schemes is of the order of Rs.
33,434 crore.”
… P. Chidambaram, Budget
2008-2009
HAQ started working informally in 1998 and was formally registered in June 1999. We
are now in the year 2009, on the verge of completing our 10 years. Started in one room
by two people with the vision of working with and on children’s issues, it has grown to a
full-fledged team. The idea was to work not only on one child rights issue but to look it
in a holistic manner. The idea is taking shape and stakeholders understand child rights as
an important issue that needs to be looked upon. Children’s developments are now
becoming significant change indicators.
Our ten years happen to coincide with two decades of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It also coincides with the XIth Plan's commitment
to India's children and a distinct space for child rights as a first in the history of planned
development in the country.
Budget for Children (BfC)
HAQ began its work on child budget analysis in 2000. Since then, this work has grown
both within HAQ as well as spread into other organisations and institutions including
Government of India. Based on HAQ’s BfC work, the
Ministry (then Department) of Women and Child
Development had begun to undertake child budget
analysis in 2003. In 2006, it had announced that it
would undertake child budget analysis in the centre and
in the states. However, this never found any reflection
in the budget presented by the Finance Minister. After a
meeting with the Finance Minister, last year had marked
a milestone in our work on Budget for Children with
Mr. Chidambaram announcing a separate statement for
children in the Finance Bill.
HAQ’s budget analysis finds a place in the Working Group documents of the Ministry of
Women and Child for the Eleventh Plan as well as the Eleventh Plan document. Most
importantly, HAQ’s constant emphasis on low allocations for the protection of children
based on the BfC analysis found resonance in the Ministry’s recommendation for the
formulation of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (pg. 81 and 97, Child Budgeting,
Chapter 5, Report of Working Group on Development of Children for the Eleventh
Five Year Plan, MWCD and pg. 204, Towards Women’s Agency and Child Rights,
Chapter 6, Eleventh Five Year Plan, Planning Commission of India). These have
validated HAQ’s decision to undertake this work and continue with it more
systematically and in greater depth.
Quick Budget Analysis
This year, because of the elections, the Government of India has
presented an interim budget, which once again included a separate
statement on children. The HAQ team had undertaken a quick analysis
of the interim budget and circulated it to all the NGOs, networks,
alliances and media. This year too the media covered it. Indo-Asian
News Service (IANS) has done a story on the Children Out of
Focus…Interim Budget at a Glance 2009-10, which was picked up by many other internet
news services. Independent stories were done by Mail Today, Hindustan Times, and The
Hindu.

3. 2
Budget for Children in States
It has been six years that we are doing BfC analysis in the states. We
had started with three states in 2002 and now we are working in the
six states of Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Orissa, West Bengal and Assam in partnership with
local organisations in the State. This work is
supported by Ford Foundation and Sir Dorabjee
Tata Trust. Since last year, some of the states have
become active in mobilising people in the
community using the budget findings, and are also undertaking
advocacy initiatives with legislators and policy makers.
The advocacy work around BfC initiated by MVF is really worth mentioning. MVF have
Child Rights Protection Forums (CRPF) in every Mandal (Block) where they work. Over
the years the CRPF members have been trained in understanding the budget analysis and
using it for advocacy at the local level. CRPF members have been visiting various Mandal
offices and District offices and enquiring about the funds received under a particular
programme as well as the status of utilisation of funds. As a result of the continuous
interaction with the local authority the CRPF members were being invited in the
planning meetings of the Mandals and the District Education Office. Initially, trainings
were given to the CRPF members of Ranga Reddy district, and later on the co-ordinators
also trained the CRPF members in other districts.
In the year 2008, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and UP have done a quick
budget analysis once the budget was presented in the Assembly.
Tracking of Budget Flow
In this phase it had been decided that the fund flow process would be tracked for any
one scheme/programme right down to the beneficiary. All the state partners chose the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) as the programme they wished to track as most of them are
working on education. This work is currently on in the states. The methodology was field
tested in AP.
Consultation with state partners
2009 is the last year of the current phase of the project. Two consultations with the state
partners have been held (Bhubaneswar from 2nd
September to 4th
September 2008 and
Shantiniketan on 1st
and 2nd
February 2009). At the three-day consultation in
Bhubaneswar the methodology for the financial tracking of SSA was discussed and
finalised and a review of the budget work was done. Since this was the first time the team
was undertaking a budget tracking exercise, the entire team made a visit to the District
Office, Block Office and the Cluster Office of the SSA of Puri District to help us
understand how the SSA works at the field level, and accordingly we can decide on our
areas of study and methodology. A work plan was developed. The meeting in
Shantiniketan was to review progress and take corrective action wherever required.

4. 3
Status Report on Children
The situation of children is
by far the most important
indicator of the successes
and failures of the
government’s efforts at the
realisation of their rights.
HAQ’s experience has
shown that, apart from
being an important tool
for monitoring state
performance, such reports
can also play an important
role for planning and
policy formulation.
HAQ’s first status report,
Children in Globalising India: Challenging Our Conscience was published in 2003. It had
coincided with India’s second periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child. It had formed an important resource to the writing of the alternate report and in
advocating to the Committee members on the recommendations it needed to make to
the Government in its Concluding Observations. Being HAQ’ first report, it was based
on contributions from experts along with HAQ’s own research. It was an overall
reflection of what the situation of children was as India went into structural readjustment
and adopted a new economic policy. Because this was HAQ’s first report, it took a long
time for it to gain acceptance.
HAQ’s second report, Status of Children in India Inc., highlighted how unprotected the
children in India were even as India moved into corporatisation. This report coincided
with the formulation of the Eleventh Five Year Plan document and was used by the
members of the working group working on the Ministry’s recommendations to the
Planning Commission as well as the drafting team in the Planning Commission to write
the section on child rights. Having gained in confidence, this report was written by the
HAQ team.
This year marks the release of HAQ’s third status report, Still Out of Focus - Status of India’s
Children 2008. This report coincides with India’s submission of its third report to the UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child. Coinciding with the country’s fast progress
towards becoming one of the economic giants, as the title suggests, this report is an
effort at focusing on those out of focus in this race - the most vulnerable and excluded
categories of children. The report examines both the basis as well as the nature of
discrimination and exclusion which may be based on a whole range of factors - ethnicity,
gender, caste, class, ability/disability, geographical location, religion, rural/urban, being
affected by HIV/AIDS etc. Although it was tough to find adequate data to reflect on the
extent and magnitude of exclusion and denial of rights our children suffer, the report
tries to use whatever information is available to highlight violations concerning right to
food, health care, early childhood care and development, education, freedom from
violence, exploitation and abuse and social justice. The increasing corporatisation of
social services and its impact on children leading to greater exclusion, such as the debate
surrounding the corporate push towards providing pre-cooked meals in anganwadis;

5. 4
increasing cost of health care, push towards more privatization of education, forms a
very important part of this report.
To enable greater dissemination, HAQ has prepared a summary report which has been
put on HAQ’s website as well as other websites such as CRIN. It has also been sent out
to a large number of persons across the world.
The report was released on 23rd
January 2008 by Dr. Shantha Sinha, Chairperson first
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Dr. Syeda Hameed, Member
Planning Commission, Child Rights activist Swami Agnivesh, Justice Madan B. Lokur,
Chairperson Delhi High Court appointed Monitoring Committee on Juvenile Justice,
Shri Ravi Prakash Verma (MP) and Shri Sandeep Dikshit (MP).
On the day the report was released, CNN-IBN aired a half an hour programme based on
the report and Enakshi and Bharti were also invited to give a lunch hour talk on the
report at UNICEF on 6 March 2009.
The first two were supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and this one by Sir
Dorabjee Tata Trust.
Volume on Children and Governance
As the title suggests, this is a volume that examines the understanding of the connection
between children and governance drawing upon experiences from different countries and
India. All the contributions to the book have been received and reviewed. Queries were
sent out to all the contributors. All, but one, have responded. Dr. Marta Santos Pais who
was part of the team that drafted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and
was a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and is currently the
Director the Innocenti Centre, Florence, has agreed to write the Foreword. The chapters
will soon be finalised and sent to the publisher. When published, this book promises to
be an important contribution to the debates and discussions on child rights.
Parliament Watch
HAQ has continued with its analysis of parliamentary questions and debates from a child
rights perspective. For the first time a translation in Hindi
was also published. While this publication has not had the
far-reaching impact we had hoped it would, there are some
interesting outcomes. There are a few parliamentarians with
whom HAQ has now developed a relationship and who call
upon HAQ for information. Mr. Ravi Prakash Verma made
a particular mention of the Parliament Watch booklets in
his speech at the release of the status report on 23 January
2009.
Child Atlas
The Child Atlas work met with further setback when all the consultants working on it failed to deliver.
Despite having sought help from experts like Dr. Satish Agnihotri, we have had to struggle a lot with this
project. HAQ has been forced to work on it all over again. Work is in progress. The first draft is ready.

6. 5
Legal Aid
Three years ago HAQ decided to provide legal aid to children. HAQ was very clear in
the mandate to take a few cases as test cases to monitor the criminal and juvenile justice
system and functioning of implementing agencies judiciary vis-à-vis children. Handling
cases in the trial courts, Juvenile Justice Boards and Child Welfare Committees gave
wider understanding and in-depth learning. HAQ is now using the basic learning from
the judiciary and quasi-judicial bodies at the implementing level in the training
programmes with police, government and non-governmental organisations. Now HAQ
is an important partner with Delhi police on the issue of child rights and handling cases
of children.
HAQ’s legal aid work has been documented as a good practice case study by UNDP. It is
titled “HAQ: Centre for Child Rights – Ensuring Justice and protection for Girls coming
in contact with the Legal System” (pg. 111-113, Good Practices in Gender
Mainstreaming – Case Studies from India, UNDP, 2008).
Amongst many cases followed up by HAQ, some resulted in success with justice for the
victims. A rape case of 2006 under trial in a Faridabad Court resulted in life sentence for
the offender. For HAQ this was
the first case where life sentence
had been ordered to the rapist.
This case was forwarded to
HAQ by Navsrishti, another
Delhi based NGO. HAQ’s role
was primarily to assist the Public
Prosecutor from time to time,
share with him various old and new judgements of the Supreme Court and High Courts
on dealing with victims of child sexual abuse by police and judiciary, informing him
about the rights of the child, assist in collection of evidence and follow-up the case
proceedings.
Another case where a judgement was passed by the Delhi Court keeping in mind the best
interest of the child needs mention at this point. This is a case where synergy of action by
HAQ, CNN-IBN and CWC, Nirmal Chhaya brought justice to a child who was sold
illegally into adoption and his minor mother who gave birth to him as a result of rape.
The Court ordered the police to initiate investigation into the illegal sale of the baby and
asked the Delhi government to rehabilitate the minor mother by providing employment
as she had turned major in the course of the trial. The child was given back to the minor
mother who was keen on keeping her baby and she was appointed as a House Aunty in a
state run institution for child care. This case too has been documented as a good practice
by UNODC last year. (pg. 136, ‘Combating organized crimes through coordinated
efforts – An effort of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights to ensure prosecution and justice in
a case of illegal sale through coordinated action’, Compendium of Best Practices on Anti-
Human Trafficking by Non Governmental Organisations, UNODC, 2008).
The High Court guidelines on child sexual abuse that came out of suo moto cognizance
of a letter written by HAQ to the High Court appointed Committee on Juvenile Justice,
have been shared with Magistrates and various police personnel in the course of legal aid
work as well as during trainings with the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

7. 6
With four years of legal aid work, HAQ is getting more and more into providing
counselling services for children as well as looking for possibilities of their rehabilitation.
To walk-the-talk HAQ provided an opportunity to a child in conflict with law to work in
the organisation and earn a living. HAQ has now opened the doors to other such
children as well, who are over 18 and need to be mainstreamed.
Report on Juvenile Justice
In the year four years, juvenile justice has become one of the major areas of HAQ’s
work.
Based on HAQ’s own experience of working with the juvenile justice system, providing
support to both children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law,
HAQ has been working on an action research report. It draws upon all the cases that
HAQ has undertaken as well as information that the team has collected in the course of
its trainings with major stakeholders, and visits to other states.
Earlier, a book was written and published by Ruzbeh Bharucha, which draws upon
HAQ’s experiences as well as his own as a volunteer with HAQ. The book entitled ‘My
God is a Juvenile Delinquent’ is available in all major bookshops across the country. This
is a book about children in conflict with law, whose cases were pending in the Board
since long and many of whom were languishing in the state/NGO runs Observation
home for many years. The book focuses more on the emotional, physical and
psychological issues, rather than only the legal perspective.
Being action research, many changes in the functioning of the juvenile justice system in
Delhi were witnessed during the course of research itself. While this has delayed the
report, it also makes HAQ proud of its work on the subject and the visible changes,
although there is still a very long way to go. Surely, many more actors have now come
into the picture, who have started intervening in juvenile justice issues in Delhi with great
zeal. HAQ’s constant advocacy with the High Court appointed Committee on Juvenile
Justice has also brought many different actors to discuss critical issues on a common
platform. The number of pendency of cases in the Juvenile Justice Boards is much lower
today and elements of quality care in dealing with children can also be seen with more
and more actors joining in.
Training and Capacity Building
Training and capacity building has taken up a considerable amount of the organisational
time during the course of the last year. The HAQ team has been called upon to train
police; members of the judiciary; members of the Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile
Justice Boards; NGO representatives, government officials and children themselves on a
range of topics including child rights; child budgeting,
abuse, trafficking, juvenile justice and even psycho-
social counselling. There is no separate team in HAQ
to undertake training. Drawing upon our own
experience, the members of the HAQ team take turns
to undertake such initiatives.
HAQ is recognised as a resource organisation by
institutions such as NIPCCD, Delhi Judicial Academy,

8. 7
Police Training College in Jharoda Kalan. Terre des homes (Germany) has also been
approaching HAQ for capacity building programmes on child participation with their
partner NGOs from the Hindi speaking belt and children associated with these
organisations. Last year in May one such workshop was conducted for partners of terre
des homes in its Child Labour Free Villages Project, including children. This year PVR
nest has approached HAQ for initiating regular capacity building programmes with street
children supported by them. HAQ has already conducted three workshops with these
children.
Some requests have come to us from other States too. On the 4th and 5th December
2008, a two day training programme on Juvenile Justice Act was organized in Shillong,
Meghalaya, the north eastern state in India. HAQ in collaboration with Impulse NGO
Network organised the programme. The training was meant for the members of Child
Welfare Committee and Juvenile Justice Board. The main highlights of the TOT
programmes included a basic understanding of child rights, India’s commitments and the
UNCRC, understanding the juvenile justice law and using it effectively while handling
matters concerning children.
In December 2008, a two days’ workshop on strengthening regional collaboration against
violence and trafficking of girls/women in Bihar was organised by Bhoomika Vihar, a
CACT partner NGO, where HAQ took a session on how to use the law to book a case
of trafficking.
Another out-of-station training programme was on child budgeting. Mahila Sarvangeen
Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM), Pune conducts national level
training courses on human rights and rights based approach under their
project Masum Institute for Training in Rights-based Activism (MITRA). As a
part of this programme HAQ was invited to take a session on Budget for
Children (12 April 2008).
HAQ conducted twenty-seven trainings sessions with
Police officials on juvenile justice and child trafficking
in the year 2008 and 12 in 2009 as of 18th March.
HAQ’s focus during its training sessions with police is
to help the participants understand the law and how to
use it in the interest of the child, particularly where a
child is a victim or in conflict with law.
Training programmes with Public Prosecutors and Probation Officers attached to the
Delhi Department of Women and Child Development is being pursued with concerned
authorities. As part of proposals invited by the Delhi DWCD through an “Expression of
Interest” notice in the newspapers, HAQ had proposed to conduct trainings for
Probation Officers and other functionaries involved in providing care services to
children. The Department has agreed to call upon HAQ for such programmes as and
when required.
Development of Training Materials
A kit has been prepared for sharing with the police and members of the judiciary. This
includes relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act,

9. 8
2000, as amended in 2006 as well as the Central Model Rules of 2007, a Judgement of the
Delhi High Court stating guidelines to be followed in cases of sexual abuse of children
and contact numbers for all CWC and JJB Members. Some frequently asked questions by
the Delhi Police personnel, based on police queries received by HAQ, have been put up
on HAQ’s website as well.
A Handout on the Juvenile Justice law has also been prepared for Judicial Officers, which
is used in trainings at the Delhi Judicial Academy.
In addition to this, HAQ is part of a sub-committee set up by the High Court appointed
Committee on Juvenile Justice. This sub-committee was constituted to work on a
Training of Trainers Manual for Police Training on Juvenile Justice. Members of other
NGOs and Delhi Police’s Crime Against Women Cell (now referred to as the Special
Police Unit for Women and Children) are also part of this
sub-committee. Work on the manual is in progress.
HAQ also contributed to the development of a desk calendar by the Delhi Police for all
police stations. The calendar contains messages on various child rights issues for both
police and public. This was an initiative of the Jt. Commissioner of Police (CAW), Mr.
Sudhir Yadav and also part of discussions of the High Court appointed Committee on
Juvenile Justice, which felt the need for development of sensitization and awareness
materials by the police on issues concerning children. Initial few copies of the Calendar
have just been printed.
The manual developed by HAQ & CACT on child trafficking is
distributed extensively amongst all participants for trainings on the said
subject. UNICEF, Human Rights Law Network and NIPCCD were
some of the users of the Child Trafficking User’s Handbook last year.
HAQ prepared a “Compendium of Best Practices on Anti-human
trafficking initiatives by NGOs” for the UNODC in 2008. The Compendium looks at
initiatives involving NGO-Corporate partnership as well as partnership with other
stakeholders in the prevention of trafficking, protection and rehabilitation of victims and
prosecution of offenders. This was part of UNODC and Government of India’s joint
initiative on Strengthening the Law Enforcement response in India against Trafficking in
Persons through training and capacity building.
A booklet developed by HAQ for the Ministry of Women and Child Development on
Child Protection for has been translated into Hindi and sent for printing. Neither the
Ministry nor UNICEF seemed keen on translating it. HAQ therefore decided to go
ahead with it, based on the demand from various quarters. This booklet is meant to be
used for educating Panchayat Members.
Recently HAQ also completed a handbook on “Child Marriage in India: Law and the
Protocol for Action”, for the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The
handbook will be printed by UNICEF, whereupon HAQ along with UNICEF, the
Ministry and some local partner organisations will organise workshops based on the
handbook for government officials in five states. In two of these five states, district level
training programmes will also be organised.

10. 9
Workshops and Seminars
As always, this year too HAQ organised many workshops/seminars and also attended
many either as resource persons or as participants. Besides workshops related to BfC
analysis, some of the other workshops/consultations/seminars organized by HAQ were
on subjects like child trafficking and juvenile justice. The most recent one was a National
Consultation on Countering Challenges in Adoption and Combating Child Trafficking.
This Consultation was organised partly with support received by HAQ: Centre for Child
Rights under the EU co-financing project on ‘Developing a Human Rights Approach to
Anti-Human Trafficking (DDH/2004/089-105)’, which is coordinated by tdh-Italy and
partly with grant received by Pratidhi from Christian Aid for the ‘Campaign against Child
Trafficking’. This consultation was the first of its kind at the National level, which tried
to look at the connection between adoption and child trafficking. It drew from
experiences across the States and raised several questions regarding banning of inter-
country adoptions in order to ensure ethical and legal domestic adoptions. The report is
under print.
Ms. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral was asked by the National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (NCPCR) to be part of the organising team for the National Convention on
Child Labour and Right to Education held on 10, 11 and 12 December 2008. She was
also the convenor for the first plenary session on “A Rights-based Framework for the
Abolition of Child Labour and the Right to education as a Fundamental Right”. As part
of this event, HAQ and CACT-Delhi also organised a thematic panel on “Addressing
Impact of children migrating with families and trafficking of children for labour –
Prevention, Rescue and Rehabilitation”.
HAQ was invited by UNESCO to the Regional Forum on "Making the Case for
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in South Asia" (28-29
April 2008, Bangkok Thailand), where Madhumita Purkayastha made a presentation on
‘Budgeting for the Young Child’, based on HAQ’s BfC analysis.
A Seminar was organised by JABALA and HAQ on 7th
and 8th
August 2008 in Kolkata to
reflect on the issue of re-trafficking and its causes and consequences.
Advocacy
On 12 June 2008, the World Day against Child
Labour, a letter was sent to Ms. Renuka
Chowdhury, the Minister for Women and
Child Development requesting transfer of
child labour issues from the Labour Ministry
to her Ministry.
The Five Year Plan documents were finalised
and released in November 2008. For the first
time in the history of India, there is a section
on Child Rights in the XIth Five Year Plan.
This is a huge victory. Change in terminology
is the first step. It has even got a section on
budget for children and quotes HAQ’s data.

11. 10
HAQ has been closely involved in the drafting of the plan document and therefore is,
needless to say, feeling very happy with this move of the government.
HAQ was part of the lobbying initiative asking for hot cooked meals to be provided to
children in Anganwadis part of the group that wrote to the government. Consistent
advocacy and lobbying finally led to an the cabinet decision not to go ahead with pre-
cooked meals that the Minister for Women and Child Development had been pushing
for.
After the unfortunate incident of the murder of Arushi Talwar, HAQ was called upon by
the Ministry of Women and Child to provide legal inputs on what stand the Minister
should take on the vicious media coverage that was taking place defaming the child. This
was followed by a meeting that the Minister called, that Enakshi Ganguly and Bharti Ali
attended in the Minister’s room.
ICPS (the Integrated Child Protection Scheme) was introduced in the XIth plan after
much advocacy by civil society organisations. HAQ had been instrumental in drafting the
very scheme. However, two years later it was discovered that the scheme did not take off
because it required a formal approval from the Planning Commission. HAQ lobbied with
a member of the Planning Commission who asked for a meeting of the Commission to
discuss the scheme. Once the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission agreed for
a meeting, several civil society organisations joined hands to press for the approval of the
scheme under the banner of Citizens for ICPS (C4 ICPS). All the advocacy and lobbying
efforts built up the pressure. HAQ also got the media to talk about it. The pressure
finally led to the approval of the scheme and now even if there is a change in the
Government after elections, the scheme will continue.
HAQ has been actively involved in advocacy with the Delhi Government on the
forthcoming State Rules on Juvenile Justice. The Secretary of Department of Women
and Child Development has acknowledged HAQ’s inputs.
HAQ also engaged in giving inputs to the Ministry of Women and Child Development
for advocating for certain child rights indicators to be included in the Census by the
Registrar General of Census of India.
Last year the Government was supposed to send its next Country Report on CRC to the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. As always, civil society organisations engage
in several alternative processes to prepare shadow reports that are also sent out to the
Committee for consideration while discussing issues of implementation of the
Convention with the Government. HAQ has always been part of such exercises. This
time HAQ decided to be part of the initiative to prepare a children’s alternate report.
Many processes have been organised with children by Campaign Against child Labour
(CACL), Campaign against Child Trafficking (CACT) and Bal Adhikar Abhiyan (BAA)
across the country to put together their views and observations on implementation of
CRC in India. This process entailed training of facilitators who were to conduct sessions
with children and prepare children to carry out research in their areas, hold state level
processes and regional processes. HAQ has supported BAA for video documentation of
the children’s processes carried out in the northern states of India. Children are now
waiting eagerly for the Government of India’s report, which is long over due, so that they
can look at it and comment on it. Finally the response of children will be put together in
the form of regional reports as well a national report.

12. 11
HAQ entered into a contract with UNDP for a project titles “Rock4Life – Advocacy
through the Arts” as part of UNDP’s Programme to ‘Support National Efforts for
Mainstreaming of HIV’. The project is being coordinated by HAQ’s Executive Council
Member Mr. Susmit Bose. It is being carried out in the seven North-Eastern States and
includes identification of a band in each of these states, mentoring of the bands to create
anti-stigma songs, recording of songs composed and sung by them as the ‘Rock4Life
Album’ and production of a 1000 CDs for circulation.
Bharti Ali is a member of the newly constituted Central Advisory Board on Child Labour
set up by the Ministry of Labour. The first meeting of the Board was held on 29 July
2008 and was chaired by the Minister of Labour and Employment. The issues for
discussion in the meeting were some amendments proposed on the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. One of the amendments was to bring in a
section on trafficking of children for labour. Bharti drew the attention of the Board to
the need for pushing this amendment through along with providing for standards of care
and protection of children during rescue, rehabilitation and restoration also within the
Act.
Bharti is also a member of the Working Group set up by the National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights on “Protection of Rights of Children at Railway Platforms”,
constituted vide Letter No. 11012/6/2009-Admn-/3263.
HAQ is a member of the Special Juvenile Police Units in three police districts – Central,
South and Outer Districts.
Bharti Ali has been a member of KOORA, the Coordination Committee elected by
Delegates at the Delegates Conference of terre des homes (Germany). KOORA is an
advisory body to the tdh Board and shoulders the responsibility of coordinating the
Delegates Conference, where policy issues and strategic planning of tdh is discussed and
finalized through co-decision between delegates representing the tdh Board, staff,
volunteers and project partners. Her KOORA term gets over this year in June 2009. The
experience of KOORA has helped her use the space made available by tdh for dialogue
and participation of the partner community in developing the larger development agenda
of tdh. It has also helped understand the situation of donor agencies in Europe, their
struggle to sustain themselves in the wake of changes in global economic crisis and
funding possibilities for Indian NGOs given the changing vision of India as an economic
power.
Campaign against Child Trafficking
Since its very inception, HAQ has been part of CACT, the Campaign against Child
Trafficking in India. HAQ hosted the National Secretariat of the Campaign for five years
(2001 to 2005). In 2009 HAQ has again been given the responsibility of acting as the
National Coordination Office of the campaign.
As part of its commitment to the campaign, HAQ used its available funding for anti-
trafficking work to advocate on behalf of CACT and initiate awareness drives.
Some such initiatives include screening of the anti-trafficking spot in PVR plasma
theatres, in kiosks at Dilli Haat and now at two important Metro Stations – Rajiv Chowk

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and Kashmere Gate. The metro station screening commenced on 1 March 2009. It will
be screened on all 50 LCDs at the two stations every ten minutes from morning to night,
for a period of one month.
Another metro station campaign which has started generating queries from curious and
concerned citizens is the Translites put up at three Metro Stations – Kanhaiya Nagar,
Pitampura and Rithala, two on each platform in English and Hindi respectively. HAQ
looks forward to corporate support for carrying this campaign forward. HAQ
acknowledges the support received from the European Union and cooperation received
from TDI to make this possible.
On 30 June 2008 Delhi Department of Women and Child Development invited HAQ
and various organisations for a meeting to discuss the child trafficking issue post floods
in Bihar. This was because Delhi happens to receive maximum number of trafficked
children from Bihar. The meeting was called at the request of Pratidhi, the Delhi
secretariat of CACT-Delhi, of which HAQ has been an active member. A follow-up
meeting was held on 20 January 2009, wherein a campaign by Delhi Government on
child trafficking was planned for railway stations.
In September 2008 Vipin Bhatt was nominated as an International Visitor in a
programme organised and sponsored by the United States in collaboration with
Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The International
Visitors Leadership Programme entitled “Combat Trafficking in Person” is meant to
explore, examine and share various efforts being made to combat trafficking at
international level.
Exploring some interesting partnerships
Priya Village Road Show of PVR-NEST
HAQ had approached PVR for showing its 30 second spot on child trafficking in some
of their PVR theatres. The spot was developed through funding from the EU under an
anti-trafficking project in some South Asian countries. Following this first contact, PVR
had invited HAQ to conduct sessions with children that they support as part of their
PVR-Nest programme. These sessions were on rights, personal hygiene, community
development and gender issues. HAQ and PVR are now working on a regular
programme where in HAQ would conduct such sessions with the children regularly.
In exchange, PVR has offered to screen the anti-trafficking spot at at all their plasma
theatres and some auditoriums in the NCR region.
Satyam Computers
Satyam Computers, as part of its CSR has been redesigning and developing HAQ’s
website. HAQ was in the process of forming a long-term partnership with them and the
Government of Delhi for the rehabilitation of children in conflict with law, when the
Satyam scam broke open. LEAP (Life Enhancement through Aspirations Project), was
conceived as a Joint Venture of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and the Satyam
Foundation-The CSR Wing of Satyam Computers Services Ltd. for Counselling,
Mentoring, Skill Development and Rehabilitation of Children in conflict with law. HAQ
had visualized connecting children in conflict with law with this programme and Satyam

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had readily agreed. When the Delhi Department of Women and Child Development
called for an expression of Interest from civil society organisations as well as the
corporate sector, both HAQ and Satyam proposed to take on children for rehabilitation
under this LEAP programme. However, the project seems to have fallen through with
the Delhi Government, though HAQ may still continue to explore the possibilities of
connecting children in conflict with law under the LEAP programme of HAQ and
Satyam.
Sanket
Sanket, an organisation based in Bhopal, has approached HAQ for providing technical
assistance in carrying out Child Budget analysis in the State.
Organisational Development and Strategic Planning
HAQ has also undergone a three-day on tools of monitoring mechanism as part of OD
and strategic planning from the 16 to the 18 of January 2009. All HAQ staff attended it,
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.
To know and check the visibility of the organisation HAQ has done a small email
feedback survey with various organisations.
Visitors
Professor Gary Craig, Professor of Social Justice, Department of Social Sciences,
University of Hull and Associate Director, WISE, Wilberforce Institute for the Study of
Slavery and Emanicipation, University of Hull visited HAQ on 29th
December 2008. He
wanted to build linkages with NGOs and Research institutes.
The summary of the feedback received through this survey as of Dec 15, 2008– is as
follows:
Observations:
- Majority respondents have been campaign or network partners
- Overwhelmingly, HAQ is seen as an advocacy & research organisation on child
rights
- HAQ is also known for its work on Budget for Children and Campaign
against Child Trafficking
- Majority have seen and used HAQ’s publications
- Publication usage has been primarily for information and data
- Majority rated contents as very useful and presentation as good
- HAQ’s response to support seeking calls is rated as timely and helpful
- On the organisation’s ability to manage its mandate, majority rated it as ‘reasonably
good’
- On way forward, majority have ranked ‘Policy Advocacy’ as No. 1 in terms of
priority
areas

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Ms. Ivanilda Figueiredo, Coordinator, Human Rights Centre, (Núcleo de Direitos Humanos)
of the Law Department at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil visited on 15
September 2008. She has been associated with a Project titled “Access to Justice in
IBSA Countries (India, Brazil and South Africa)” and was undertaking a research on
'Comparative Visions of Access to Justice: India - Brazil - South Africa.'
Prof. Vicky Randall, Professor of Law, Department of Government, University of Essex,
visited on 7 April 2008. She was part of an education and research exchange project
between India and the UK (UKIERI) sponsored by the British Council. Her research
project focused on the question of child prostitution. She had looked up the HAQ
website and wanted to meet HAQ to discuss its perspectives on different children issues.
Dr. Yvon Dandurand, Associate Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies,
University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, B.C., Canada, was referred to HAQ by
Justice Madan B. Lokur to discuss issues of juvenile justice in India. He visited HAQ on
28 November 2008 along with his colleague Ms. Darlene.
Exposure and exchange visits were made by the following:
A group of 10 NGO representatives from Afghanistan together with Dutch co financing
agency (Cordaid, ICCO and OXFAM Novib) visited HAQ on 5 March 2008 as part of
an exchange programme organised by ASK.
A Kashmir Delegation of NGO heads was sent by Aman Biradari on 11 February 2009
for gaining insights into working on child rights.
Supporters
In these ten years we have received a lot of support from various quarters. Our funders,
beginning with terre des hommes (Germany), The Ford Foundation, CORDAID and Sir
Dorabjee TATA Trust, have shown immense faith in our work. UNDP, UNICEF,
UNODC are amongst the UN organisations we have successfully collaborated with. To
add to the list are Save the Children (UK), now also known as Bal Raksha Bharat, and
CRY who have supported us in some of our critical endeavours.
Mr. Kishen Mehta, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers based in Tokyo and Director,
Asia Initiatives, has been taking interest in HAQ’s work and would like to help HAQ in
generation of resources for sustainability. Mr. Mehta came to know about HAQ from
Human Rights Watch, where he saw our last Status Report on India’s Children. He was
very impressed with it and wished to meet with us.
Consultants
• HAQ hired Ms. Roopali Mote as a consultant to help in systemisation of our library
and documentation and computerisation of all library books.
• Mr. Jyoti Sarma helped in advocacy and administration as a Consultant for one year.
• Ms. Emily Bild had been asked to work as a consultant in preparing HAQ’s Status
report.
• Ms. Tripta Batra was assigned to work on the Child Atlas.
• Mr. Debasish Nandy and Mr. Suddhasil Siddhanta joined as part of the team working
on the Child Atlas.

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Interns/Volunteers
The volunteers from the law, social work, media and research background from all over
India joined HAQ in the year 2008. These volunteers were either pursuing graduation or
post graduation or completed their studies.
1. Ms. Ambika Kapoor
2. Ms. Madhuri Balodi
3. Ms. Gurtej Sandhu
4. Ms. Durgesh
5. Ms. Deeksha
6. Ms. Amrita Devanag
7. Ms. Chandrima
8. Ms. Stuti Raj
9. Ms. Neha Mishra
10. Mr. Prabheed Kumar
11. Mr. Siddharth Mehra
12. Mr. Vikas Kumar
13. Mr. Samar Shahi
HAQ Team
• Ms. Enakshi Ganguly – Co-Director & ex-officio member of HAQ: Centre for Child
Rights
• Ms. Bharti Ali – Co-Director& ex-officio member of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights
• Ms. Paromita Shastri – Research Director (from January 2009)
• Mr. Vipin Bhatt – Programme Co-ordinator (Child Protection)
• Ms. Madhumita Purkayastha – Programme Officer (Children and Governance)
• Ms. Indarilin Dkhar – Programme Officer (from joined July 2008) (Children and
Governance)
• Ms. Bibinaaz Programme Officer (Child Protection) (joined February 2009)
• Ms. Tahniyat Siddiqi - Programme Officer (Child Protection) (from April 2007 till
September 2008)
• Ms. Neena Sharma- Administrator
• Ms. Preeti Singh – Accountant
• Mr. Aditya Kumar- Administrative Assistant
HAQ EC
• Urvashi Butalia - President
• Jaya Shrivastava- Treasurer
• Susmit Bose- Member
• Miloon Kothari – Member