Webinar: Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Reviews Duty Bearers of Child Protection

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam State Commission Webinar for Protection: The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) recently organized a five-phased series of webinars with all districts of Assam to take stock of the functioning of the Child Protection Mechanism as a whole.

The webinars were attended by duty bearers of child protection namely — Special Juvenile Police Unit, District Child Protection Unit, CHILDLINE, Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board, Assistant Labour Commissioner/ District Labour Officer, and District Social Welfare Officer.

Dr Sunita Changkakati, Chairperson of ASCPCR expressed her concern towards children's safety during the pandemic situation. She informed the duty bearers that lockdown should not prevent anyone from performing their duties towards child rights protection.

Dr Pilu Hazarika, Member, ASCPCR, and also one of the Key Moderator and facilitator of these webinars took a status report of all CWC, JJB, DCPU and SJPU about the nature of cases dealt, how sittings are conducted for the production of children in need of care and protection.

Ajoy Dutta, Member, ASCPCR, and also one of the key moderator and facilitator of these webinars took a status report of all DSWOs, Labour Department, CHILDLINE about vaccination of field level employees, Anganwadi centres delivering hot cooked meals, child labour task force, child labour survey report to name a few. Instructions were given to all concerned to submit a status report to the Commission based on the review meetings, stated a release.

Phanindra Bujar Baruah, Member, ASCPCR spoke about the importance of nurturing children's talent during these times especially since online education is not equally accessible to everyone.

Rupa Hazarika, Member, ASCPCR, spoke about creating awareness via social media on types of crimes against children based on reporting of cases during the lockdown. She emphasized providing mental health support to children via national helpline numbers dedicated to providing tele counselling.

Cases of crimes against children reported during the second wave lockdown are mostly child marriage cases, POCSO cases, illegal adoption cases, and child labour cases.

Keeping in mind the new scheme announced by the Chief Minister for orphan children or children who have lost a parent to COVID-19, the Commission has instructed all districts to collect the data of orphan children from both the first and second wave of COVID-19 and to upload the same on NCPCR portal Baal Swaraj at the earliest as well as to ASCPCR.

Also Read: ASCPCR to Duty Bearers: Monitor Safety of Children During COVID Pandemic