Bengaluru, Nov 18: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is used to receiving bouquets and brickbats from voters, but on Tuesday criticism and some sage advice came his way from over 70 students at the child rights parliament.
It was a long wait for children at the event organised by the Karnataka Child Rights Observatory, Karnataka State Legislators Forum for Child Rights, and UNICEF, as the Chief Minister arrived nearly three hours late. And once he arrived, it was a barrage of questions for the next one-and-a-half hours.
Mr. Siddaramaiah faced questions ranging from malnourishment to poor infrastructure in schools. His standard response to most queries was the various schemes that his government had introduced, such as Ksheera Bhagya and Anna Bhagya.
It was while answering one such question on child labour that his sweeping generalisation did not work. Keerthi Gowda, a high school student, said, “You made such promises at last year’s parliament too. What has been done since?”
On toilets too, the Chief Minister could not get away with generic answers.
Spoorty D.C., a class 9 student from Mandya, told him that many toilets were in poor condition, locked or opened only when officials come for inspection. “Despite toilets being constructed, most children have to go to the fields or back home,” she said.
When questions were asked pertaining to child marriage, child labour, child trafficking and female foeticide, he admitted that despite the law banning these practices, convictions were poor due to lack of witnesses.
The event ended with many promises, one of which was that open defecation would end in Karnataka by 2018.
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