As has been the practice in the past, India is celebrating Children's Day this year on the 14th November, which is also the birthday of the late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was known to the children all over the country as 'Chacha Nehru'- the benevolent uncle who took such an immense interest in their welfare. The theme selected for this year's celebrations id "Young Human resources- the key to national development."

The wealth of the country may be measured in terms of its industrial output, export earnings etc., but there can be no truer index of a nation's wealth than our future human resources, the coming generation, the children of that country. It is these youngsters of the country who have to be at the helm of affairs tomorrow guiding the destinies of the nation. There can be no greater national task than the work of developing and shaping the children for their future responsibilities in their formative years.

The P&T Department has been associated with the celebrations of the Children's Day since 1957. It is once again the privilege of the P&T Department to bring out a special commemorative stamp to focus the attention of public on this very important national resource- the budding youngsters. The stamp which is being brought out this year shows a Nehru Gold Medal winning entry by Miss Geeta Gupta in a recent "on the spot" painting competition for children sponsored by Shankar's Weekly.

The design adopted on the First Day Cover , which is being issued on the occasion, is based on a prize winning entry submitted by Miss Vidooshi Sharma in the Shankar's International Children's Competition held in 1969.

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