Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's birthday, is celebrated all over India as Children's Day, a tributr to his love for childrenand his vision which placed the future in their hands. This year Children's Day theme is "A Child's Right to a Home." The Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted unanimously in November 1959 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Its preamble proclaims thet "Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give. It is the right of the child to have opportunities to develop physically, mentally, socially in conditions of freedom and dignity within home and outside home." For the child the home should be a haven of security, free of friction, where the foundation of self-confidence, initiative, creativeness, self-discipline and appitude for cooperation are laid. A child's personality flowers to fulness here and it becomes a sustaining memory in later years. The instict to build a home and "play home" is dormant in every child and is a basic need. Yet millions of children in India, and indeed the world over, are deprived of this.

They live in deplorable conditions, in extreme cases, being abandoned altogather and turning to delinquency or beggary. The United Nations has declared 1987 as the "International Year of Shelter for the Homeless" and Governments everywhere are designing and implementing schemes to provide shelter. But the task is stupendous and a year is too brief to meet all the objectives. However, the year should mark the beginning of a long-term plan to provide shelter to those who need it most - real homes full of love and care.

The Department of Posts has issued stamps to mark Children's Day almost every year to "A Child's Right to a Home" - a place where a child can belong, grow and develop into a secure and responsible person.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India