Imphal, July 16: The women's committee of the United NGOs Mission, Manipur has appealed to all the militant groups operating in the State not to recruit any child in respect of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocol-II.

Talking to mediapersons at State Youth Hostel at Khuman Lampak here today, convenors of the women's committees of UNM-M set in all the nine districts of the State expressed gratitude to all concerned for handing over Yengkhom Naobi and Angom Langamba of Iroisemba Lourembam Leikai to their respective family members and Moirangthem Kenedy and Sagolsem Sanjoy to Mahila Kalyan Samiti after they had reportedly gone missing.

UNM-M considers that these children have been handed over in respect of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional ProtocolII which has around 200 signatory countries all over the world as well as to ensure the rights due to every child, they said.

Expressing serious concern over increasing number of missing cases of children, they pointed out that since May in all 14 cases have been reported.

Out of these, only four children have been found and handed over to their respective families while two children managed to escape from the hands of their alleged kidnappers.

In the face of such kidnapping/missing cases, parents are really perturbed today, the convenors said, while informing that UNM-M has adopted various recommendations in this connection and the same would be forwarded to all the authorities concerned including the President, the Prime Minister, Governor of the State, the Chief Minister and even United Nations.

The recommendations include ensuring prompt action by the police in solving cases related to missing of children, taking up the responsibility of spreading awareness among the people by the NGOs working in the field of protection of child rights, stopping recruitment of children by militant groups in respect of Optional Protocol of the CRC, setting up trauma counselling centres in all the districts, as ell as child help line and hot line in all the places by the Government, NGOs and other private enterprises, to ensure proper implementation of the schemes and programmes already being launched for the welfare of children, to take initiative by the legal service authority specially the All Manipur Bar Association and Gauhati High Court Bar Association to spread legal awareness on child rights among the people.