Ranchi, Nov. 3: Well-known child rights activist Nina Nayak claimed today that children continued to be deprived despite protective laws and welfare schemes, urging the society to come forward to play a role in bringing effective changes as the government can't do everything alone.

Nayak, a governing council member of Indian Law Institute and former chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, was delivering a lecture on "Prioritising children in development agenda" at XISS this afternoon. It was the first of the Jharkhand Development Lecture Series that Unicef organised in association with XISS to celebrate the 70th year of its foundation.

"Forty million children in the country lack any protective umbrella in the form of a home or a guardian. You can come up with innovative ideas to address children issues," Nayak told the gathering of XISS students.

Rajya Sabha member and editor of a local daily, Harivansh, said Jharkhand children suffered from stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height) and malnutrition, while around 70 per cent of adolescent girls were anaemic and 40.2 per cent chronic energy-deficient.