Committees formed for child protection

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 20

The District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) seems to have finally found its ground by constituting anti-begging and anti-labour committees, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner. The flagship programme, under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, has been launched with an extensive multi-pronged approach that aims not only at rescue and rehabilitation of the child labourers, but also at rehabilitating street children and educating them about child protection laws.

The newly constituted committees will work upon getting complaints against the children working as beggars and labourers. “One member from each department, including education, labour commissioner, traffic police and the DCPU will comprise the committee and each complaint will be immediately acted upon. The children will be picked up by our team and placed under the protection of our officers and their parents or guardians will also be taken into questioning,” informed District Child Protection Officer Manpreet Kaur Saraan.

With six cases of rescuing child labourers in the past three months and 16 cases of missing or abandoned children, the DCPU has expanded its operations to awareness campaigns and ensuring safe school transportation for children.

A year and a half old unit has, in the past, struggled to function in the absence of infrastructure and financial support. “We still do not have an official vehicle to transport rescued children to the shelter homes. We had to function from different offices during our tenure and had to face some challnages. But we have tied up with several departments and NGOs working on rescue and rehabilitation of children to increase our base,” says Manpreet.

Currently, they are running programmes in collaboration with Juvenile Justice Department to rehabilitate children in conflict with law, special juvenile police unit to rescue abandoned/missing children and put them up for adoption and also work with NGO to run toll free helpline number 1098 for child abuse.