The key demands of the Children are “ All rights for All Children” that includes investment in inclusive education for disabled children, promoting Child’s mental health, gender equality , promoting girls education,
and quality healthcare access for all.
As India welcomes the world leaders for the G20 Summit, over 200 students representing schools and not-for-profits from across the country gathered virtually for the finale of their Kidizens’20 (K20). Kidizens, is a word coined by Children themselves, to represent their engagement as active citizens of today’s decision-making processes.
The K20 summit sought to harness the dreams, aspirations and recommendations of a major segment of globe namely children and who until today are not formally a part of the G20 processes. ‘We children may be just 18% of the World’s.
Population and 36% of India’s population but we are 100% of the world’s future and therefore it is important for us to speak up now.’ Ruksar Rehman (aged 16) the President of the National Inclusive Children’s Parliament said.
The students from across the country representing varied languages (including Assamese, Bengali Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and sign-language) and socio-economic contexts deliberated on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and made significant recommendations to the world leaders assembled in the National Capital on how to make this world a world fit for children and a world fit for all. These recommendations will also feed into the mid-term review evaluation process on the SDGs scheduled to happen in New York later this September.
All Rights for All Children
The sessions over the preceding months leading to this finale, were focused on the clubbing of the UN SDGs under the broad headings of Development for All (Goals 1,2,3,4,6 and 9), Inclusion of All (Goals 5, 8, 10, 11 16, 18),and Earth for All (Goals 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 18). The NINEISMINE campaign an advocacy initiative of, for and by the children insists that there should be a separate goal (which they refer to as SDG 18) with a exclusive focus on ‘All rights for all children’.
Experts from varied allied fields addressed the child-citizens (Kidizens) on various issues faced by children across the country and the world. The child-participants engaged with the goals at length and came up with a list of recommendations called.
The K20 Charter that has already fed into the Y20, C20 and P20 processes that fed into the G20 Summit. This second phase of the K20 Summit was organized on the 7 th and 8 th September, 2023 with children from all corners of India and beyond, prioritising the recommendations that young champions had developed during the first K20 process in May.
In line with the call of G20 ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future, the kidizens’ recommendations underlined the need for strong policies and the determined implementation of these towards the creation of a truly inclusive, sustainable, and equitable world. The Group of Twenty (G20) serves as a pivotal platform for international economic cooperation, significantly influencing global policies. In India, the NINEISMINE
campaign has been dedicated to fostering children in decision-making processes. This has been achieved through the establishment of children’s parliaments in collaboration with NGOs from all states and Union Territories (UTs).
To harness the collective wisdom of young minds, PRATYeK, in partnership with child rights organisations and schools, organised dialogues with children across India. These dialogues aimed to capture their perspectives on various G20-related topics aligned with the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
