UNICEF awards INDIAN Politician Supriya Sule for children welfare-Satish Reddy

  INDIA - 11/27/2018

Smt. Supriya Sule a Member of Parliament from the Nationalist Congress Party from India has been conferred the UNICEF Parliamentary Award for Children. The honor is in recognition of her work towards child welfare, saving children’s lives and helping them fulfill their potential. The Parliamentarians Award for Children is an award from UNICEF given to Members of Parliament of both the houses of Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha who have pursued their commitment towards uplifting children and child rights.

The Parliamentarians' Group for Children, since its inception in 2013, has been active in addressing issues that affect children–whether by raising discussions or questions in the Parliament, by mobilizing state-level leadership to ensure implementation of programmes and sufficient allocation of budgets and resources, or at the constituency level, reaching out to communities and community-level stakeholders to raise awareness and change mindsets. Over the past few years, this platform and its members have deliberated on a range of issues of neonatal health, increasing investment in the survival of the girl child, water, sanitation and hygiene in schools and adolescent health and nutrition. As a result, Parliamentarians across state and party lines have expressed their commitment to better the quality of life for India's children and adolescents.

Recognizing the contribution of parliamentarians to further child rights can go a long way in incentivizing other parliamentarians to take action for children. The Parliamentarians' Group for Children (PGC) is, therefore, organizing the Parliamentarians' Award for Children to acknowledge the initiative of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs in addressing issues of children and adolescents.

Smt. Supriya Sule, the award winner, has been an active member of the PGC and launched a state-wide campaign against female foeticide in 2011. During her second tenure in the Lok Sabha, Smt. Supriya Sule introduced four PMBs covering 'The Free and Compulsory Education for Children of Parents Living Below Poverty Line Bill, 2014’ and 'The Children Protection Bill, 2014' on 27-02-2015, among others. She has also asked the maximum number of questions (64) among all Lok Sabha MPs on the issues related to children and adolescents to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Women and Child Development, Home Affair, Labour & Employment, Social Justice & Empowerment, Health, and Family Welfare, Drinking Water & Sanitation and External Affairs. Her overall attendance in the Parliament is 96 percent in the period from 07.07.2014 to 10.08.2018.

The Analytical Hierarchy Process has been adopted as a methodology to identify the champion MPs for this process. The final ranking has been derived by using the indicators of attendance (7 percent weightage), questions raised (19 percent weightage), Private Member Bills (PMBs) (47 percent weightage) and official debates (27 percent weightage). The weights assigned to the indicators have helped determine the ranking, based on which top MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are selected

Smt. Supriya Sule, MP Lok Sabha representing the NCP from Baramati, Maharashtra posted on her Twitter saying, “Humbled to receive the Parliamentarians’ Award for Children given by Parliamentarians Group for Children. Grateful to the UNICEF & Parliamentary Group for bestowing me this honor & humbled by your gesture. I congratulate UNICEF for their development initiatives in child welfare. I also welcome you to my constituency to undertake child welfare activities & will provide my assistance to you, to further this cause. The Parliamentarians' Group for Children, since its inception, has been active in addressing issues that affect children. Thank You Once Again”, she tweeted.