Delhi Government’s Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Department on Saturday called for a collective effort from all agencies and stakeholders to ensure protection of child rights. “Reaching out to every child in need of immediate intervention, care, respite and rehabilitation is the prime objective of the programme, which calls for collective efforts from all the agencies, stakeholders, civil society, service delivery structure and communities,” said Satbir Silas Bedi, Principal Secretary (Social Welfare and Women and Child Development) Delhi Government.
The department suggested prevention of child sexual abuse through effective audio-visual aids and stressed on the need for dissemination of messages on a massive scale to address the issues.“Creating mass awareness on the subject, keeping in mind the preventive aspect is very important. Awareness should be a continuous and ongoing process through different medium. Family, schoolteachers, community and stakeholders need to be sensitised on the issue of child abuse and how it can be prevented,” said Bedi.
She said the State Child Protection Society (SCPS) has initiated a number of welfare programmes related to creating awareness and dissemination of information on the issues of child care protection, related schemes, legislations and services available for children in difficult circumstances. The SCPS is working towards developing Information Education and Communication (IEC) programmes on the concerned issues.
“Children constitute the most vulnerable section of society and are considered a supreme asset of our nation. Every child has the inherent right to life, to be protected from violence, dangerous situations, abuse and neglect. Children have the right to education, to play and to express themselves freely. Society has the responsibility to pay proper attention to children for their all-round development and welfare and ensure that every child has equal opportunity for optimum personal growth. Socio-economic circumstances of a family often result in family stress, disintegration and child destitution and vulnerability,” she said.
On an average about 6,000 to 6,800 children are attended to annually through different schemes and programmes of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) at the State level.