In order to provide children all basic amenities and to create awareness among people regarding child rights, legal facets and other issues affecting the well being of the most vulnerable part of the society, especially those kids residing in interior areas of the State, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) and various NGOs working for children on diverse issues will co-ordinate and work together to deal with the cases which requires special consideration.
Members of SCPCR and approximately 25 NGO representatives conducted a meeting to discuss and highlight on the present status of children targeting those kids who have been rescued from being trafficked and requires immediate counselling, rehabilitation, status of adolescent girls in rural pockets, role of police and NGO workers including other resource personnel.
“With the motive to strengthen the village level child protection committees and to reach maximum children to make them aware about their rights, the commission requires assistance from various NGOs to disseminate information. We have received feedbacks from various organizations. At present, police is not aware about the JJ Act, POSCO. Rehabilitation issue is the major challenge for the state government. NGO representatives have suggested that the DCs of respective districts must review the work of every NGO working for child rights at a regular interval of three months,” said, SCPCR Chairperson, Aarti Kujur.
Notably, maximum cases related to child issues go unreported. “There are several cases in which railway police personnel hesitate and do not register complains of those children who are rescued from the railway station, this happens has people are not aware about their rights. The village level communities must be linked up with Anganwadis, gram panchayats and other civil bodies,” stated, a NGO representative working for CINI, Ritika Chhetri.
Child protection units, establishment of proper rehabilitation centres at every districts, documentation of NGO work done at their respective districts, status of various schemes of state government were discussed in the meeting. “Both NGOs and the commission will work towards the rehabilitation centre. Soon NGOs and commission will coordinate and will disseminate information in all the districts about State Government schemes like Tejaswini Yojana catering to the need of both teenagers and other girls falling in different age groups through conducting camps and seminars. We are also planning to rope in few agencies through which we can disperse information in interiors at regular interval,” added, Member, SCPCR, Dr Manoj Kumar.