Child-Friendly Constituency

Child-Friendly Constituency (CFC) is an initiative to promote and strengthen child-sensitive public delivery systems in the Indian state of Odisha. This initiative was launched by Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha in 2014. The first ever CFC on the ground, as a pilot, was launched in Khandapada in 2015 by Unicef in collaboration with Kalinga Kusum Foundation. This is an MLA led initiative. Khandapada MLA Anubhav Patnaik is leading the initiative. Also the then District Collector of Nayagarh, Hemanta Kumar Padhi, IAS extended his full support to this first-of-its-kind initiative by UNICEF.

Objective
CFC has been designed to ensure that children’s four-fold rights, 1. Right to Survival, 2. Right to Development, 3. Right to Protection and Right to Participation are respected. This can only be done in collaboration with government and political leaders to effectively implement policies and schemes.

Scope of the Initiative
Five Government-sponsored child development programmes have been prioritized for this initiative. The five priorities are i) a reduction of neonatal deaths, ii) reduction of stunting, iii) reduction of open defecation, iv) enrollment of all children in school and learning institutes and v) protection of children from violence and exploitation.

Khandapada Experience
This is world’s one of such project which focuses on empowering children by sensitizing all stakeholders including parents, teachers, law enforcement, local government officials and elected public representatives. Under the project, 126 children, and adolescent collectives have been formed in 40 panchayats and one urban local body of the Khandapada Assembly constituency. 40 GPRPs have been trained to create child clubs, disseminate information and train parents in child rights. These have become catalysts to ensure facilitation of child rights. They now plan to constitute child and adolescent organizations in all the 316 villages of the Khandapada Assembly constituency. Some representatives of these organizations of children and adolescents officially participated in special ‘gram sabha’ meetings organized on 2 October 2016, the Gandhi Jayanti day.

Recognition
Khandapada MLA Anubhav Patnaik was invited by International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) to share his experience of CFC.

Sujeet Kumar received Odisha Youth Inspiration Award in Public Policy for his pioneering advisory and lead mentor role in conceptualizing and driving the Child-Friendly Constituency (CFC) at Kalinga Kusum Foundation (KKF).