NINE IS MINE

They are nine children from different part of India on a nine-day rail-yatra from southern tip of Kanyakumari to heart of the country, Delhi, just to remind the government to keep their word of setting aside nine percent of GDP for education and health.
 
The group of nine include, Jainab Hartoon, a class 11 student from Meerut. They are travelling across the country to put pressure on the central government to keep its promise of setting aside 6% for education and 3% for health. “The yatra is to force the government to deliver its promise," endorses Hartoon.
 
"Even 9% may not be enough for a country like India, but it's a start," said national convener of the rail-yatra Thomas Pallithanam. Drastically at present round 3.1% of the GDP goes to education and less than 2% to health. Around Rs 21,000 crore was spent for primary education last year.
 
Similarly, journeys starting from Shillong, Kashmir and West Coast and other three directions of the country with nine children in each of the directions converging on the national capital.
 
It is to be noted that more than 4,500 children in Delhi, India on October 16, 2006, launched the NINEISMINE campaign, a participatory children’s advocacy initiative to call for 9% of the Gross domestic product (GDP) to be committed to health and education.
 
This initiative of children, schools communities and organizations across all states and Union Territories of India is being led by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), a national campaign to hold the government accountable to its promise to end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination – toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
 
The purpose of NINEISMINE is to put children from across the country at the center of advocacy effort – speaking in one voice to enable every child to enjoy basic health and quality education as a right.
 
Children from vulnerable situations are provided with platforms both to keep their governments accountable to their promises and occasions that help them influence national and local policy.
 
Children from safe and secure environments have joined in with their deprived peers to extend their creativity, time and voice to press systems and governments to make genuine eradication of poverty and social exclusion a non-negotiable right.