Knowledge and Attitude on Child Rights among the Caregivers of Childcare Institutions in Udupi District, Karnataka

Abstract

The United Nation Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC 1989) ensures the right of all children to live with their parents and grow up in a family environment. Unfortunately millions of children without parental and family care continue to remain within the framework of Child Care Institutions who are further exposed to the problems of institutionalization. Caregivers in the child care institutions are one of the key stakeholders of child rights protection. The main objective of this study is to understand the knowledge and attitude of child rights among the caregivers of children in child care institutions in Udupi District, Karnataka. The study being descriptive in nature, 33 samples were selected by using simple random sampling through lottery method. The researcher wants to measure the knowledge level on child rights and attitude towards Child Rights by using the standardized scale (Child Rights Knowledge Scale (Samridhi et al.2015) and Children's Rights Attitude scale (Stephany L. Morine 2000). While analyzing the data it is clearly evident that more than one fourth (27.3 per cent) of the respondents have low level of attitude towards Child Rights, and less than one fourth (24.2 per cent) of the respondents have high level of attitude towards Child Rights. It is also clearly evident that majority (63.6 per cent) of the respondents have high level of Knowledge about Indian laws related Child Rights and more than one fourth (27.3 per cent) of the respondents have low level of knowledge on Indian laws related Child Rights, less than three fourth  (72.7 per cent) of the respondents have average level of knowledge and more than one fourth (27.3 per cent) have low level of knowledge about Child Rights.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, Child, Child Rights, Caregivers, Child care Institutions