The Child Protection Committees (CPCc) formed in gram panchayats under the District Protection Officer are functioning in papers only, revealed a survey conducted by the Odisha Alliance for Child rights (OACR) and the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) in three randomly-selected GPs in rural area and wards under urban areas.
The report was unveiled at a district-level interface workshop on ‘Child Rights’ here on Friday last.
The survey, conducted by the trained children through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on four core issues, i.e., protection, nutrition, education and sanitation, is being conducted across the globe by the United Nation Child Rights Convention (UNCRC) to observe its 30 years of establishment.
As per guidelines, a committee comprising Sarpanch, ICDS Supervisor, ANM, Anganwadi Worker, two children, a member from civil society and an eminent person of the locality should be formed at the GP level for protection of children.
During the survey it was revealed that although these committees exist as per the record of the District Child Protection Office, interestingly neither the Sarpanchs know about the CPCs nor do the other members know of such committees. Most importantly, no name of children representatives was found.
Similarly, in schools, School Management Committees (SMCs) should have two students as members in the committee but in none of the schools the children knew that they were members of the committee although their names were maintained.
It was also seen that most of the Anganwadi Centres do not have proper and adequate environment. In rural area (Remuna in Baleswar district) survey, out of 16 Anganwadi Centres while seven have their own buildings but rest don’t have.
Similarly in the Baleswar Municipality out of 13 Centres while three have own buildings rest are under rented arrangements. Most of these Centres lack basic amenities such as toilets, the report cited.
Among others, District Welfare Officer Kusum Mala Mishra, District Child Protection Officer Jubak Majhi, District Child Welfare Committee Chairman Bhagirathi Barik and CWC members Asish Ghosh and Padmalochan Dutta and OACR district coordinator Ubachak Mohanty were present.