GUWAHATI:The Assam Legislative Assembly and UNICEF Assam on Sunday signed a Letter of Understanding (LoU) to work together on issues related to children in the state.
The LoU was signed by Assembly principal secretary, Mrigendra Kumar Deka, and UNICEF Assam officer-in-charge, Sweta Patnaik here in the presence of the Assembly Speaker, Hitendra Nath Goswami.
More than 20 members of the state Assembly, besides member of Parliament, Abdul Khaleque attended the ceremony and signed a pledge in support of ‘Children of Assam’.
Assembly Speaker, Goswami welcomed UNICEF’s support in addressing key programming priorities. “Forty one per cent of Assam’s population are children and legislators can create a lasting change for children and set strong policy directions and debates. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), related to women and children, will be the purview for the Committee for the Welfare of Women and Children.”
UNICEF Assam officer-in-charge, Sweta Patnaik said that children’s wellbeing was linked to every aspect of the state’s development, and that many SDGs would go unrealised if issues related to children’s health, nutrition and survival were not addressed.
“Assam loses 87 infants and 96 under-5s daily. About 36 per cent children in the state are malnourished, which could be due to a number of reasons such as mothers not receiving adequate diet during pregnancy and during lactation in the first 1,000 days,” she said.
MLAs present in the programme discussed various issues faced by children in the state, including sanitation and nutrition. The need for renewing focus on adolescent and maternal nutrition and fast-tracking young child programme in Aspirational districts was also discussed.
Both UNICEF Assam and the Committee for the Welfare of Women and Children, Assam Legislative Assembly, decided to hold briefing meetings during every Assembly session, and discuss issues ranging from child budgeting, SDGs, to accelerating efforts in Aspirational districts.
The state Assembly will also host the World Children’s Day event on November 20, 2019 as part of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.