'Mental health to road safety': Hyd slum children's parliament pass 8 resolutions

Hyderabad: Hyderabad City Children Parliament passed eight resolutions on good health and well-being during its winter session.

On December 18, children especially from slum areas held a winter session and deliberated on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-III, Good Health, and Well Being.

During the session, eight resolutions were passed. These included water and sanitation, access to affordable and good quality healthcare, extending the Employee State Insurance Scheme of India (ESI) to all unorganized workers, tackling non-communicable diseases, mental health awareness, road accidents, education and awareness, and establishing children's parliament in all the schools in the city.

Amulya Madanu, who acted as Prime Minister of the Hyderabad Children's Parliament spoke on the scarcity of water and poor sanitation in her slum, KCR Nagar Colony. She also pointed out the spread of various diseases like malaria, dengue, and typhoid in her neighborhood.

Gaddam Vikram Kumar, who acted as Deputy Prime Minister of the Hyderabad City Children's Parliament spoke about the poor roads in his slum, Sinagareni colony, and the increasing road accidents.

"We propose that roads are designed and maintained properly with sufficient lighting and Issuance of driving licenses. More awareness programmes are to be conducted about traffic rules and safety from a young age," said Vikram.

He said that the metro fares should be reduced by 50 percent for children and white ration card holders.

The cabinet also proposed that the government funding for public health is increased to 5 percent of the annual budget and to increase the number of basti dawakhanas and public hospitals. They also sought for universal health coverage in the state.

The children's parliament submitted their resolutions to Prof. Shanta Sinha, former Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). Further, they will be submitting the same to government departments, GHMC Commissioner, and other officials.

Prof. Sinha, who was also present at the meeting, talked about various issues like drug abuse, misuse of mobile phones, mental health issues, etc. prevalent among the children in the city.

"Public hearing is important and all children in the basti should be given a chance to voice out their problems. People need to have the courage to listen to children's problems. This chance of voicing out problems should be given to all basti children," Prof. Sinha said.