New Delhi: India’s apex child rights body, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), has asked states not to work with the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), claiming that the international agency is involved in activities “out of its purview”, ThePrint has learnt.
In a letter dated 7 December, 2022, to the principal secretaries of the women and child development departments of all states, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said that “there have been several complaints made to the commission wherein it has been stated that UNICEF in India is involved in different collaborations and activities which has sometimes been observed to be out of its purview”. ThePrint has a copy of the letter.
The letter further stated the international agency is mandated to work and undertake activities in India through the consent and approval of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD). The five-year Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) that the child welfare body signed with the ministry in 2017, also needs to be renewed, it added.
According to a document available to on the UNICEF website, however, the last CPAP was signed in 2018, and was operative till January 2022.
When ThePrint reached him on phone, NCPCR chair Kanoongo said he had nothing more to say than what he had written to the states.
ThePrint reached UNICEF spokespersons in India, Sonia Sarkar and Alka Gupta, via email and phone calls, but did not get a response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
‘Party, partisan and political activities’
Kanoongo’s letter claimed that representatives and staff of UNICEF are involved in “party, partisan and political activities” in the country.
Sources in the NCPCR said the child rights body had sought information regarding all work being done by UNICEF with the central government, states and other authorities in India.
“We had also asked the international body to furnish a list of partner NGOs, along with a report of all the work done with them over the past five years, but UNICEF is yet to provide it,” a senior NCPCR executive told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
Sources in the WCD ministry said UNICEF failing to furnish details was one of the reasons the CPAP had not been renewed yet, despite a year-long delay.
In the letter, the NCPCR also stated that it has been made aware of instances where state governments are signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UNICEF-India for various works and activities even though the CPAP is yet to be renewed.
There have been run-ins between UNICEF-India and NCPCR before. In 2021, following the deadly second Covid wave in the country, the commission had raised objections when some states had shared data related to children orphaned during the pandemic with UNICEF.
The same year, the commission had served notices to the UN agency, along with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), for showing short films depicting same-sex relationships to minor students in schools in West Bengal.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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