Team Herald
PANJIM: The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, following a visit to Sonshi, said that the children in the village are being denied the basic human rights of safe water, good health and sanitation. A two-member panel that visited Sonshi said this was due to rampant ore transportation in the village.
The State Commission also requested the government authorities to look into the matter. “The basic human rights of safe water, good health, sanitation are denied to these children. State Commission requests the government authorities to look into the matter as the basic child rights are violated,” the Commission has stated.
The Commission for Protection of Child Rights took suo-motu action of reports in the media about the plight of children and villagers in Sonshi in Sattari and deputed Sujata Bhatkar and Carmelina Franco to visit the site.
Commission Chairperson Dr Sushma Kirtani said the panel interacted with 15 children and asked their demands. “The children were worried about dust pollution and contaminated drinking water. Health issues like eye problems and asthma due to dust pose a risk to their health,” she said.
The commission also found that the local school had only four children and they were covered with dust, looking pale and sick. The noise of ore excavation was deafening and was a big distraction to school children.
“The only well in the village is polluted, so drinking water is supplied by tankers which are filled in barrels which are again coated with dust. Thus the children do not get safe drinking water which is their basic human right,” Kirtani said.
Many children study in nearby schools in Sankhalim and Navelim, the commission said and recommended that the area that is dusty and the roads need to be sprayed with water from time to time to keep the area free of dust.
