India gets its first UNCRC chair in Dr Asha Bajpai

Dr Asha Bajpai from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has been chosen to hold India's first chair of UNCRC Policy Center. Designed for Universities and Research Centers' work towards the protection and promotion of children's rights, the chair is initiated by "Hope For Children" UNCRC Policy Center, a Humanitarian institution based in Nicosia, Cyprus whose mission is to advocate and to protect children's rights based on the standards and principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and European Union Law.

The UNCRC chair holder Prof Asha Bajpai is located in the school of law, rights and constitutional governance, center for law and society, which was set up at the Mumbai Campus in June 2012. The Centre for Law and Society is conducting a LLM course in access to justice for the marginalised and underprivileged. The course includes a module on legal strategies for empowerment and legislative reform in support of vulnerable groups including children. It has a field action project called The Chunauti (meaning The Challenge) which is involved in rehabilitating and reintegrating mentally challenged orphan children, who were abused. The Centre for Law and Society also runs a Legal Services Clinic to provide legal aid and mediation services to the underprivileged and marginalised. It is involved in teaching and research related to laws and rights of the vulnerable sections of society like children, women, disabled and HIV/AIDS affected, and unorganised labour. The centre is also involved in legislative reform, drafting rules and policies and assisting in Public Interest Litigation related to children.

The chair will act as an agent of knowledge on children's rights within the academic community through policy and practice, by teaching, conducting research and providing services to community, such as specialised courses and training for professionals.

The establishment of the chair of the UNCRC Policy Center seeks to nurture cooperation and collaborative action between organisations and agencies around the world. This is in the hope and expectation that working together would enable more effective implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the enjoyment of children's rights to the fullest extent.

Expressing happiness at the honour Dr Bajpai told dna: "That this is happening in the 25th year of the UNCRC is very special. The General Assembly adopted this convention in 1989. India took till 1992 to ratify it. We have a long way to go in the areas of child malnutrition, trafficking, abuse and adoption laws. I feel this chair will give me the opportunity to amplify these issues more and more at all fora."

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is a premier social science institute in Asia with a pan India presence across four networked campuses. It is a deemed university and has a legacy of 77 years of transformative education for addressing critical social issues. TISS has dedicated schools and centres for various disciplines of the development sector. The schools foster a transdisciplinary approach in their teaching methodologies. In addition, centers and field action projects are interlinked with various schools. It currently offers 45 Masters degree programmes, which include integrated MPhil--PhD and direct PhD programmes in a variety of subject areas. TISS has been involved in promoting child rights in its teaching, research, field action projects and advocacy through its various schools and centres.