Children’s Day and Stamps Collecting

Children's Day is recognized on various days in many places around the world, to honor children globally. The first ever Children's day was celebrated in 1954. The idea of a universal Children's Day was suggested by Mr. V.K. Krishna Menon and it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. By resolution 836(IX) of 14 December 1954, the General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children's Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children.

At first it was celebrated universally in the month of October. After 1959, November 20th was chosen as Children's day as it marked the anniversary day when the Declaration of the Child Rights was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. In 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was also signed on the same date.
In India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday was declared as Children's Day and is celebrated annually on the 14th November to cherish his love and attachment for children. Lovingly called 'Chacha Nehru' which means Uncle Nehru by the kids, Jawaharlal Nehru gave emphasis to the significance of giving love and affection to children, who are the bright future of India. The main purpose of this day is to encourage the welfare of children all over the country.

Jawaharlal Nehru, who was fondly called Chacha Nehru (Uncle Nehru) by the kids, emphasized the importance of giving love and affection to children, whom he saw as the bright future of India. This day is known as Baal Divas in Hindi.

Many functions are being organized in schools, offices and other organizations all over the country and various cultural and social institutions conduct competitions for children. Children's Day is seen as a day for the kids to engage in fun. Children take part in many sports organized for them.

India Post also celebrates Children’s Day by releasing special postage stamp every year on 14th November. Stamps issued on this occasion are the only stamps which are not designed by professional stamp designers of India Post.

India Post or Bhartiya Dak Vibhag as it is known in Hindi holds drawing competition at all India level and the selected best entries gets its place as design of the commemorative postage stamp, first day cover and various other such items which are issued on 14th of November by the name of that particular school student.

It was in the year 1957 when India Post issued a set of three stamps for the first time on 14th November. First of the stamp was depicting a boy eating a Banana. The price of the stamp was 8 Paisa. The stamp was created from a candid photograph of an eight year boy Shekhar Borker. The photograph was selected from 10000 entries. Shekhar became famous as 'Banana Boy' after the stamp was issued. Until 1966, the Children's Day stamps were created using photographs. From 1971, instead of using photographs, India Post started to use designs of drawings and paintings done by children and selected from all over India. Until 1971 the stamps were printed in single color, except stamp of 1962. From 1973 onwards India Post started issuing multicolor stamps.

In the year of 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1988, 1989 and 2003 Stamps were not issued on the occasion of Children’s Day. However in 1988 and 1989 stamps were issued on Jawaharlal Nehru on 14th November to mark his Birth Centenary. This year in 2014 also stamp on Children’s day is not issued.

Stamps issued on the occasion of Children's Day.

1957	1957	1957
Nutrition	Education	Recreation
1958	1959	1960
Nurse exercising Polio afflicted child	Boys awaiting admission to Children’s home	Equal importance to study & recreation
1961	1962	1963
Vocational Training	Passing the flag to youth	School Meals
1964	1966	1971
Obverse of 1 Re. coin of Jawaharlal Nehru	Infant & Dove Emblem	Women at work
1973	1974	1975
Children at Play	Cat	Cow
1976	1977	1977
Loyal Mongoose	Cats	Friends
1978	1980	1981
Two Friends	Girls Dancing	Toy Seller
1982	1983	1984
Mother and Child	Women & Child at Festival	Forest
1985	1986	1987
School Girl using Computer	Girl Rock Climber	My Home
1990	1991	1992
Doll and Cat	Happy Children in Colorful Dress	The Sun
1993	1994	1995
I’CYP Udaipur, mascot Gajju & Children	Me & My Pals	Children in Circle
1996	1997	1998
Indian Village	Chaha Nehru with Child	Empowered Girl Empowered Society
1999	2000	2001
Let us Live Tomorrow	My Best Friend	Role of I.T. in bringing the World together
2002	2004	2005
Holi Festival	My Villa	Vijaya Dashmi Procession
2006	2006	2007
My Mythological Hero - Krishna	My Mythological Hero - Karna	The Magic of The Night
2007	2008	2008
The Magic of The Night	India of My Dreams	India of My Dreams
2008	2009	2009
India of My Dreams	Preserve Wild Life	Preserve Wild Life
2010	2010	2010
Dolls	Kite	Pin Wheels
2010	2011	2011
Puppets	Save the Tiger	Save the Tiger
2012		2013
Future Post Office		Holiday

Design a Stamp Competition India Post Organizes 'Design a Stamp Competition' for School children. The competition is organized on national level and hundreds of thousands of school children from every corner of India take part in it. A theme is given and the competitors and they have to design it in ink, water color or oil paint. Winning design is selected to depict on Children's Day stamp. The competition is open for the student of Standard IV to Standard XII, and is divided in 3 groups. The winning entries from each group gets its place on Children’s day stamp, First Day Cover, Miniature sheet and various such other collectables by released by India Post every year on 14th November.

Many stamp collectors like to specialize themselves in a specific theme. Gandhi stamps are one of the most popular themes in the collectors of stamps. Now Children's day stamps also have become a popular theme amongst the collectors. It is notable thing that India post has issued a large number of stamps on both the themes. Stamps on this theme are displayed in most of the philatelic exhibitions in India.

I myself started collecting stamps in my school days and still it’s going on.

Courtesy: Deepak Narendra Ji Modi, Jalna | Email: modi.philatelist@gmail.com