 statement of objects & reasonsthe need for protecting the child from abused and exploitation has been felt for long the first declaration of the rights of the child was drafted in 1923 and was adopted by the league of nations in 1924, declaring, that "owes to the child the best it has to give" 1979 was observed as the international year of the child when the united nations undertook to draft a treaty binding on all the nations the un general assembly in 1989, unanimously adopted the convention on the rights of the child the soul of the convention 1s set out in four over-arching acrticles 1 no discrimination against children 2 in all matters concerntng children, the best interests of the child shall be primary 3 the right of the child to life, survival and development 4 the right of the child to express views freely in all matters affecting him or her all this concern of humanity for the child 1s obviously attributable to acceptance of the fact that the child 1s most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, especially in the poorer nations, where child labour especially bonded child labour 1s rampant children's rights became the principle item 1n all the mayor un conferences in 1990's india acceded to the u n convention on the rights of the child on december, | 1, 1992, and the decade 1991—2000 has been observed as the decade of the girl child, with a national decadal plan of action for the girl child in recognition of the mghts of the girl child to protection from exploitation, assault and physical abuse the national policy for children laid down in 1974 itself envisaged that "children shall be protected against neglect, cruelty and exploitation" despite all these policies and programmes and laws like the children act, since replaced by the juvenile justice act, 1986, and the child labour (prohibition & regulation) act, 1986, the child remains the most exploited and abused section of society over 20 million children are enslaved in bonded employment 380 million children are kept away from school, malnutrition of children continues unabated taking a heavy toll of the infants, and as per recent unicef study over one million children are forced into prostitution every year, majority of them in asia countless children are seen engaged in begging on road crossings and other public-places, most of them under organised gangs it is theretore necessary to lay down by law the basic rights of all children, including the street children, the abandoned and neglected children and the bonded children those engaged in begging and children of lesser gods the children of sex-workers who face the problem of identify of society, and to provide an administrative mechanism for protection and promotion of these rights to provide necessary infrastructure to secure to the street children their nghts, as per un convention, and to protect them against exploitation and abuse, it 1s proposed to create a regulatory authority in each territorial devision as provided for in clause 6 of the bill, who would be responsible for registering all births and maintain a register for the street children, to provide for way and means for securing their due rights under the convention the central government ts expected to evolve a national policy tor the street children, in consulation with and with the approval of the national commission for the street children as provided under clause 4 the national commission would carry out different functions as set out in clause 4 to provide for conditions of living, nutrition, health, education, training and protection against exploitation and abuse of the street children, necessary for development of their presonality to its best self the bill thus aims at providing for infrastructure, policy and the law to secure and protect the rights of the street children, as per un convention, adopted by the government hence this bill dr karan singh, m p financial memorandumclause 4 of the bill provides for the setting up of a natonal commission for the street children by the central government, which besides union ministers and officials shall be comprised of 3 members of parliament (2 from lok sabha and | trom rayya sabha) and five other members the bill, if adopted, ts estimated to involve an initial expenditure of rs 4 crore and recurring expenditure of rs 2 crore per annum as to the regulatory authority as contemplated under clause 6 of the bill, appropriate officers under respective panchayat or municipality could well be assigned with the job by the appropriate government memorandum for delegated legislationclause 9 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules necessary to carry out the purposes of the proposed legislation the rules will relate to matters of details only the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character