Established in 1946 by a Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations to assist programmes for the benefit of children and adolescents in countries which were victims of aggression and for child health purposes generally, the United Nations Children’s Fund has, today, become an integral part of the world-wide campaign to ensure a better future to the rising generation. By now the UNICEF assists health, nutrition and welfare programmes in nearly 100 countries. This work is financed through voluntary contributions from Governments and donations from the public.
Prominent on the lists of UNICEF projects is assistance to various countries for building and expanding their basic Maternal and Child Welfare services. This includes basic and permanent health and welfare services for children, especially nutrition and health centres and the training of national personnel to plan and operate these services.
Equally important are the UNICEF assistance programmes for the control of communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, yaws, trachoma and leprosy. The UNICEF is however not concerned merely with the control of disease as such, but aims at achieving higher standards of well-being among children, through better nutrition. This includes supplementary feeding schemes, milk conservation, development of protein-rich foods and education of families in better nutritional practices.
UNICEF has also sponsored programmes of emergency aid for relief of children and mothers in times of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and drought.
The aim of the Fund, in short, is not merely to provide curative measures against diseases, but “to seek a way to the future, when every child lives and grows within a family unit, which is, in turn, part of a healthy and contented community”.
The paths to this end are many, beset with difficulties, sometimes overwhelming, but by beginning with these programmes which bring help to large numbers through simple measures, much has been achieved by UNICEF since it first started functioning. The people themselves are now demanding and working for better conditions for their children, and Governments all over the world recognize that provision for social welfare is an investment that they cannot afford to ignore. The creation of this consciousness among the people is reflected in the UNICEF policy of participating in a project only when requested to do so by a Government which contributes a matching expenditure on the project.
In the words of Shrimati Vijay Lakshmi Pandit when she was the President of the United Nations General Assembly, “The Fund is one of the most vivid examples within the framework of the United Nations of international cooperation for peaceful purposes. Its value lies not only in the lives saved but in the entire communities which it strengthens and in the faith in the United Nations which it establishes and renews wherever it operates”.
Since independence, all States in the Indian Union have collaborated closely with UNICEF in the implementation of a wide range of programmes directed towards the improvement of the lot of mothers and children.
It is against this background that the Posts and Telegraphs Department have thought it fit to issue a special commemorative stamp on UNICEF DAY.
Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India