Kareena Kapoor appointed National Ambassador by UNICEF India; says children need a voice, like to be heard

NEW DELHI: Kareena Kapoor Khan is among the most popular names in Bollywood. Apart from being a reputed actor, she has also worked for social causes. Today, UNICEF India appointed her as its National Ambassador.

Kareena Kapoor has been associated with UNICEF India since 2014 and has worked on issues such as girls' education, gender equality, foundational learning, immunization and breastfeeding.

During the event, she talked about child care, the rights of children and nurturing their confidence.

"Every child deserves a right a right to safety, a right to gender equality, a right to education, safe environments, health and nutrition."

She said her being appointed as UNICEF India's National Ambassador, is a very special moment for her.

"I'm very honoured and very humbled to take on this position. I've worked tirelessly and worked very hard with all my heart. And now, finally, I'm joining them as a national ambassador. But of course, with that comes a huge responsibility which I accept with all my heart to ensure that every child through the corners of India, however vulnerable, wherever he is, whoever she is...I must include when I say every single child, I do not specify gender, I do not want to, voice or no voice, abled or disabled...I specify every single child I will work towards to give them their fundamental right...," she said.

"Every child deserves a fair chance to life, the first five years of their life being their foundation. Every child deserves a childhood, the first five years, once again I repeat, being the most important and formative years. They deserve a right - a right to safety, a right to gender equality, a right to education, primary education, safe environments, health and nutrition. They basically deserve a fair chance at life itself."...

Kareena shared that being a mother of two sons, Taimur and Jeh, she has realized that every child "needs a voice"

"Of course, this role is most important, but the most important role I play in my life is being a mother to my two boys. And I always feel that children need a voice. They like to be heard. Whatever it is, whichever environment they're in, whether it's talking to their parents, talking to their peers, or talking to their teachers, they want to be heard. They want to feel like someone's listening to whatever they're saying, at whatever age, they just want to be heard. And that is something that I make a conscious effort of with my children is if they have a voice, we must, must hear them clearly," she shared.

The 'Crew' star emphasised the need to develop the child's confidence so that they can innovate new ideas and dream big in life.

"And nurturing their confidence. Because confidence gives them the ability to dream, ability to fly, ability to have ideas, to innovate, which they need because children are, they are the future. They are the future of our nation. So to have that, we must build their confidence. So that is also a fundamental right, which we have to do," she said.

"And by that, I mean engaging them in sports, drama, painting, arts, reading, things like that, which we plan to do. And that's what I want. These two things are, I think, the most important thing in the formative years of a child, which I'm quite sure we're going to do in the coming years. And of course, I would like to say that it's been an absolutely tremendous journey, a decade together with UNICEF India," she added.

On the movie front, Kareena is currently basking in the success of 'Crew', in which she shared screen space with Kriti Sanon and Tabu.

Helmed by Rajesh A Krishnan, 'Crew' revolves around the journey of three working women set against the backdrop of the aviation industry.

The film also stars Diljit Dosanjh, Kapil Sharma, Saswata Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

In the coming months, she will be seen headlining Hansal Mehta's 'The Buckingham Murders'. She also has Rohit Shetty's 'Singham Again' in her kitty.