State attends NINEISMINE prog

Four students along with two coordinators from Nagaland have participated in the nine-day national children consultation programme at New Delhi from January 25 to February 2 with active participation of about 200 students from 23 different states and union territories. The programme was initiated by NINEISMINE.
Prodigals’ Home, Dimapur, was the liaison organization for Nagaland state, wherein 4 students and two coordinators namely Ms. Lilyma of Prodigals Home and Lozua Kape, centre coordinator of CHILDLINE, Dimapur, under Prodigals Home, attended the programme. The four participating children from four different school of Dimapur were Ito Sumi of MGM Higher Secondary School, Shiluinba Jamir of Lima Aier Higher Secondary School, Azhupeo Kape of Eden High School, Thilixu, and Kinday of St. Teresa Little Kingdom School.
A workshop on national children Parliament was conducted and election of the ministries was also held where Shilu also contested and was elected as the deputy environment minister.  The participants were divided into groups and they interacted with the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, Dalit Minister Uday Raj, tribal minister Jual Oram, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and some other MPs where the children presented the manifesto and the issues of children from different states.
‘Bal Ahwan’- a child’s cry for inclusion,” was one notable highlight of the programme where children from different states and communities expressed their issues through dance and testimonies which was attended by Ambassadors of various nations, corporate leaders and civil activists.
“We the children,” a program where the national children Parliament elected minster were sworn in by an advocate of the Supreme Court was another event.
A public day rally at Jantra mantra where around 10,000 children participated in the rally was another notable event in which the children from the State have participated.
NINEISMINE is a participatory children’s advocacy initiative to call for 9% of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to be committed to health and education as promised in the common Minimum Program 2004. This initiative of children, schools, communities and organization across all states and union territories of India is being led by WADA Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA).  It is a national campaign to hold the government accountable to its promise to end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination towards meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDGs).
The purpose of NINEISMINE is to put children from across the country at the center of the advocacy efforts speaking in one voice to enable every child to enjoy basic healthcare and quality education as their non negotiable rights.