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
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NB/UD
