When the Village Level Child Protection Committee (VLCPC) at Pakhurbeda village in Gulkeda Panchayat of Chakradharpur block in West Singhbhoom got to know about two minor sisters being trafficked, they did not think twice before departing to Delhi to rescue these girls.
A team of VLCPC members along with Manoj Khandai, the child protection community cadre of their village and father of the girls departed to Delhi and rescued the two girls with help of local police there.
In another instance, VLCPC members of Nagar village in Sisai block of Gumla, with the help of local panchayat Cadre Asha Rani, intervened and prevented a minor girl from being married off.
Once non functional, the VLCPCs in 178 villages of Gumla and West Singhbhum are now not just functioning but working dedicatedly towards protecting the rights of children in their villages and rescuing them from various situations.
VLCPCs were formed in 2015 under the integrated child protection scheme (ICPS) of the government to protect the rights of children at grass root level. However, in most villages of Jharkhand, these VLCPCs were only made on paper and are still defunct.
In a bid to make these committees functional and protect the rights of children at grass root level, Baal Sanrakashan Saathi or child protection community cadres were appointed by Save the Children at 30 panchayats, 15 each in Sisai block of Gumla and Chakradharpur block of West Singhbhum, covering a total of 178 villages.
Since the appointment of these cadres around a year ago, the VLCPCs were re-formed and the villages are now on the route of becoming child friendly. Divya Tigga, programme coordinator said, “At present there is no link between the village and districts. These cadres are helping bridge the gap and provide a friendly, conducive environment for the children in their villages. Once the experiment is successful, we will share the result with the State Government and advocate appointment of such cadres at panchayat level across the State.”
The cadres have identified over 3800 vulnerable children in these 178 villages who might be susceptible to crimes like trafficking, child labour, sexual abuse or others.
While 1648 such children have been identified in Chakradharpur block, 2200 have been identified in Gumla.
Tigga said, “The vulnerability assessment has been done based on categories prescribed under Juvenile Justice Act, like single parent, orphan, incapacitated parents and others. The common problems in Gumla turned out to be that of drug abuse, gambling and orphans while that in West Singhbhoom was child labour, trafficking, single parents and orphans.”
She added, “Now that the vulnerable children are identified, the second step is case management, which is linking the families of these children to various social security schemes and providing other aide to children.”
Meanwhile, a four day training programme is being held for these cadres in Ranchi wherein they are being made familiar with ICPS guidelines, various social security schemes, capacity building and many other aspects. “This is the second phase of training which concludes on Friday. The first phase was completed in September 2018. We are planning to complete two more phases soon and are hoping that the selected villages are made child friendly before the end of this year,” Tigga said.