The BJP believes that the integrity of the family institution is the main guarantor of India's civilizational continuity. Hence, the importance of protection and nurturing of family values cannot be overstated in the context of nation-building. If the family is the brick, society is the edifice. But the facts as they exist paint a dismal picture. India has a high infant mortality rate.
Many children suffer from malnutrition and hunger.
The majority of them have no access to education. Deprived of their childhood, millions of children have to work to feed themselves and contribute to the family income. Constitutional provisions and legal safeguards have been followed more in the breach than in practice. Children's rights are the foundation on which better societies can be built and, therefore, we will implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child in both letter and spirit. As we step into the next millennium, child labour must be left behind, consigned to history as completely as those other forms of slavery that it so closely resembles.