Taking note of seriousness of incidents of child abuse in schools, the Union Ministries of Women & Child Development and Human Resource Development will hold a high level meeting in New Delhi tomorrow. The meeting will be co-chaired by the Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javdekar. Officials of the two ministries, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan will participate in the meeting.
In a telephonic discussion, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi requested Shri Javadekar to consider suggestions like having women employees as the support staff and bus drivers/conductors in the schools, screening of educational films on child sexual abuse in the schools, popularizing POCSO e-Box and Childline 1098 through NCERT publications and having strict norms for employing the support staff. Smt. Maneka Gandhi has also given the suggestions in her letter to the HRD Minister.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has already started its outreach campaign for protection of children through electronic as well as social media.
Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi stated that the basic objective of the meeting of the two ministries is to develop a set of guidelines and protocols which schools must follow so that the children remain protected from any kind of abuse or physical/ mental harm.
The WCD Minister further stated that the parents, guardians and teachers should remain vigilant about the children as well as their behavior and any suspected situation should be reported immediately on the Childline No.1098 and the POCSO e-Box.
Link of the POCSO e-Box is given below:
Link: http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/user_complaints.php
Scource – PIB, Govt of India
Image Courtesy – govtech.com