Government of India to make arrangements for establishing and managing offices for Child Welfare Committees who do not have their own offices: Union Minister for Women and[...]

"Government of India will make arrangements for establishing and managing offices for Child Welfare Committees who do not have their own offices said Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani. She was speaking at the Regional Symposium on Child Protection, Child Safety and Child Welfare at Mumbai today. She also assured that the Government will provide all the support to establish Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in regions like aspirational districts or the districts where crimes against children are high which do not have CCIs or require additional CCIs. She urged stakeholders to draw attention of the government to this problem by writing to the Ministry so that the Government can make the necessary arrangement for the establishment of new or additional CCIs.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), Government of India organised the Third One - Day Regional Symposium on Child Protection, Child Safety and Child Welfare at Mumbai today. Maharashtra, Goa, Gujrat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were the participating states/UTs in this symposium. The Symposium was attended by representatives from Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), Members of Village Child Protection Committee (VCPC) and Anganwadi Workers. The programme is part of a series of regional symposiums to be held across the country to raise awareness and outreach about child protection, child safety and child welfare issues.

The Minister also further announced that the government will take all the responsibility of girls who are victims of sexual exploitation and are deserted by their families. The Ministry of Women and Child Welfare will extend financial support to such victims, she said. She invited suggestions from stakeholder agencies in this regard and also asked them to provide information about such victims to the government. The Central Government can thus address problems of such victims in co-ordination with the State Governments and give relief to innocent victims. She stressed on the issue of human trafficking and informed that the Government has formed anti human trafficking units in each district of the country to tackle the menace of human trafficking.

The Union Minister emphasized on the achievements made in furtherance of child protection, safety and welfare and said that due to the relentless efforts of the Child Welfare Committees and District Child Protection Societies more than 1,40,000 children could reach their homes in last 4 years. She also stated that more than 1,30,000 councillors, workers, officers associated with Child Care Institutions could receive counselling through 'NIMHANS'. She added that the fact remains untold to the nation through our media that due to the co-operation extended by the various concerned agencies and through coordination with District Magistrates more than 2500 children have been adopted thus far.

While underlining the importance of bringing back dropout school girls to mainstream school education, she informed that more than one lakh girls could be brought back to schools with the co-ordination of all the departments across regions and including every district, village and house. She said that the Ministry has decided to bring back school dropout adolescent girls especially from minority communities as there are more than one crore children from the minority communities in the country who are out of school according to studies undertaken by various NGOs like Pratham. She also stated that the government will collaborate with the Women and Child Development Ministry, Education Ministry and Ministry of Minority Affairs to identify children upto the age of 14 years who have the right to education under RTE and try to provide education to them. She further added that support of stakeholders agencies such as the members of Child Welfare Committees, State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights District Child Protection Units and others would be required to achieve this and expressed confidence regarding receiving it.

Shri Sanjeev Kumar Chadha, Additional Secretary, Women and Child Development, Smt. Indra Mallo, Joint Secretary, WCD, Smt. Rupali Banerji, Member Secretary, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) were present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Sanjeev Kumar Chaddha, Additional Secretary, WCD said that after the implementation of Mission Vatsal in mission mode, an improvement was seen in the implementation of Juvenile Justice Act and functioning of CCIs as a result of which common people and children have benefited.

Indra Mallo, Joint Secretary, WCD briefed the gathering about Vatsal Bharat and sought support from all the State Governments for the successful implementation of Mission Vatsal. She stated that the Ministry has launched a Mission Portal and details regarding the Mission are available on the portal. She concluded by saying that children are the carriers of our dreams of a bright future and Mission Vatsal can contribute in the fulfilment of this dream.

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