Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 29

A group of media people working for the welfare of children and child rights announced forming a body under the name “Journalists group for children” for the first time in the country in Lalitpur on Wednesday.

The main objective of the group is to create an understanding and mutual cooperation between the journalists, child right activists, organisations working for child rights and children themselves.

The group aims to collect and disseminate information about children, conduct training and workshops, organise field visits, interactions and provide consultancy for the media.

The members of the group include journalists Suvekchhya Bindu Tuladhar, Rajen Manandhar, Sahadev Poudel, Saroj Aryal, Amika Rajthala, Kartikeya Ghimire and Kumar Bhattarai from Hatemalo Nepal.

Meanwhile, the first interaction programme was organised on the topic: “Children in the 10th five year plan”. On the occasion, co-ordinator of Plan International, Gyanendra Shrestha emphasised on child participation in formulating plans whereas president of Child Development Society, Sharad sharma said, “The grave issue of children being used as human shields in war frontiers and child trafficking needs to be looked into at once. Also the national and international conventions should be included in national agenda to ensure its implementation.”

The participants of the programme stressed on the need for the government’s obligation in implementing the national and international commitments for children.