WCD Minister meets Officials from Ministries of Home Affairs ...

[Taskforce on Non-institutional Child Care]

Ministry of Women and Child Development01-May, 2012 20:58 IST
WCD Minister meets Officials from Ministries of Home Affairs, Labour,
Health and Family Welfare, HRD and NGOs
Stresses upon Stringent Systems and Effective Measures to Prevent
Child Abuse
Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry
of Women & Child Development held a meeting with senior officers from
the Ministries of Home Affairs, Health & Family Welfare, Labour &
Employment and Human Resource Development as well as Chairperson,
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Member,
National Commission for Women (NCW) and representatives from voluntary
organisations working for children in difficult circumstances to
discuss the measures being taken to prevent abuse of children in
various situations. Expressing her deep anguish and concern regarding
the various incidents of abuse and exploitation of children that have
been reported by the Media in the recent past, she urged upon all
concerned to devise and put in place effective measures and establish
stringent systems to ensure that children remain protected in their
environment – i.e. living with their own families, in schools or in
child care institutions.

Smt Krishna Tirath emphasised the need for stepping up coordination
among Departments/Ministries as well as State Governments and the
civil society in order to avoid occurrence of such incidents.

While mentioning some of the steps taken by her Ministry in this
regard, she informed that the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Bill has been passed by the Cabinet and will be re-introduced
shortly in the Rajya Sabha. Further, the Juvenile Justice (Care and
Protection of Children), Act, 2000, which is the primary legislation
for children in difficult circumstances, is also under amendment and
the Ministry proposes to introduce a penal provision for non-
registration of Children‘s Home under the Act. It is felt that
bringing all the Children’s Homes under this Act would subject them to
stringent scrutiny and monitoring as prescribed and, thus, quality of
care in the institutions would improve.

It was also informed that the implementation of Integrated Child
Protection Scheme (ICPS), which is a comprehensive Centrally Sponsored
Scheme introduced by the Ministry in 2009-10, is also well underway
and good progress has been made by the State Governments/UT
Administrations in setting up Child Welfare Committees (CWCs),
Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) and dedicated structures at State and
district levels with staff exclusively working on child protection.
The Childline Service, a 24 hour telephone helpline service for
children in distress, has also been expanded from 83 locations
initially to more than 200 locations now.

In the meeting, the issue of abuse of children in Child Care
Institutions, such as the recent allegation of sexual abuse of
children in Arya Anathalaya, Delhi, which is a Home un-registered
under the JJ Act, was discussed. Concern was also expressed regarding
the abuse of children by their own parents/guardians and it was felt
that there is a need to build awareness regarding safe abandonment of
children in cradles set up in Adoption Agencies and hospitals, from
where they can be given an opportunity to be adopted by a loving and
caring family.

In view of reported cases of trafficking of abandoned children from
hospitals, the representative from the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare was requested to set up cradles for safe abandonment, and
provision of appropriate facilities for trauma care for children.
Special facilities for health care of adolescents and mental health
for children were also identified as issues for action.

Smt. Krishna Tirath, also expressed concern regarding the rising
number of cases of abuse of children employed as domestic workers and
suggested streamlining of procedures to counter-act trafficking of
children for gainful employment, rescue of children engaged hazardous
work as well as regulation and monitoring of placement agencies which
are mostly responsible for placing children as domestic workers. The
State Governments should be urged by the Ministry of Labour and
Employment to build awareness at the field level regarding the child
labour protocol for rescue and rehabilitation.

The need to align all existing laws dealing with trafficking and their
effective implementation by Ministry of Home Affairs was emphasised.

On the issue of convergence it was suggested that the role of civil
society is important for pursuing with the State Governments to
activate district and village level structures dealing with children,
like teachers, ASHA workers, gram sabhas etc., for ensuring that
children do not drop out from schools, keeping a look-out of for abuse
of children in their homes and mapping of vulnerable children.

It was agreed that focus should be shifted from institutionalisation
of vulnerable children to strengthening the families by linking them
with schemes like MNREGA and fostercare/ sponsorship support.

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MV
(Release ID :82893)