Jharkhand Police, Education Department and UNICEF Jharkhand organised talk shows on child online protection for over 600 senior and high school students & teachers in DAV Gandhi Nagar, Zila School and Marwari School in Ranchi. The programme was organised on the eve of the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and is a part of UNICEF’s ongoing ENDviolence against children campaign.
Dr. Madhulika Jonathan, Chief of UNICEF Jharkhand said, “It is important for parents and teachers to orient children that with power comes responsibilities and so is the case with social media. Children must protect themselves online and demonstrate mature behaviour because an action on social media is irreversible and stays there forever.”
The students were informed about safe online behaviour by SP CID Jaya Rai, DSP Cyber Crime Shardha Kerketta, Technical Officer CID Saurav, Nisha from learning links Foundation and Priti Srivastava, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF. The children took a pledge to become responsible citizens and to practice safe behaviour on social media. Information pamphlets and bookmarks were also distributed during the session.
The cyber helpline number (9771 432 133) was shared with the students who were encouraged to reach out in the hour of need. The focus of the programme was on reporting, reporting platforms available in the state and breaking the culture of silence around violence and abuse of any kind.
A small session with around 42 Shakti Commandos (police personnel trained to respond to alerts in case of an emergency on the Shakti app developed by Jharkhand Police in 2015); Inspector of the Cyber thana (there is one such thana in each district); and the team of ‘Nirbhik Hum Tum’(a small team constituted by CID, Jharkhand Police to
regularly visit and orient school
students on protection issues as well as legal provisions) was also held to train them on how to deal with cases of online abuse.