Children urge PM to champion their cause

Postcards contain issues that concern children and should be made part of the 2015 Millenium Development Goals

Over 25,000 children have sent postcards to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to keep issues that concern them in focus at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, NGO World Vision India said.

The over 25,000 postcards from children across the country represent the voices of over 400 million children in India, so that issues that concern them should be made part of the 2015 Millenium Development Goals (MDG), the NGO said.

The prime minister will participate in the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly and the special Sep 25 event to follow it on MDGs.

"Despite remarkable progress during the last few years after the launch of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), we still lag behind in meeting the MDG targets for improving child and maternal health by 2015," said World Vision India CEO Jayakumar Christian.

"Children in India still lack life-saving vaccines, protection, live in fragile contexts, face inequality and discrimination and millions continue to die from largely preventable causes," Christian said.