Tag: Ministry of Women and Child Development

  • WCD ministry to rope in Panchayati Raj for child protection in villages

    The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) will soon involve the Panchayati Raj system to tackle neglect, exploitation and mental health concerns of children in villages with the help of local leaders and grassroots workers.

    The pilot project will be first rolled out in Telangana and Odisha, and will then be expanded to 118 aspirational districts. This integration of child protection and mental health at the community level through the Panchayati Raj institutions is the brainchild of the WCD Minister Smriti Zubin Irani.

    “The Panchayat programme is likely to begin in the states of Telangana and Odisha. There are talks with several other states in the country as well to pilot the programme,” said Dr Shekhar Seshadri, an expert adolescent and child psychiatrist at NIMHANS, Bangalore.

    The project is being undertaken by SAMVAD (Support, Advocacy and Mental health interventions for children in Vulnerable circumstances And Distress), which is a national initiative and integrated resource for child protection, mental health and psychosocial care established by the ministry.

    This idea envisions safety and wellbeing for children in India through standardised training, capacity building initiatives and campaigns while leveraging digital technology supporting efforts towards building a digital India.

    Launched in June 2020 SAMVAD, is located in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. One of the mandates of SAMVAD is to work with Panchayati Raj systems and integrate them with child protection schemes and mental health efforts in aspirational districts across the country to facilitate awareness generation and improve service delivery at the grassroot level.

    Aspirational districts will be identified in the finalised states and panchayat members will be trained to identify issues like child neglect, abuse, and exploitation not only at home but outside too

    “The learning we will get after working in these states would help us further fine-tune the programme. And then we will scale it up in other districts,”  said Seshadri.

    Under this project, they will not only work with district magistrates but also sensitise and create awareness among the Panchayati raj representatives, primary health care doctors, Asha and Anganwadi workers, teachers, and the sarpanch too. For this, capacity-building exercises will be undertaken among these various grassroots functionaries.

    “Just being sensitive to the child-related issues or identifying and recognising the child’s problem is not enough. These functionaries have to respond to a given situation too.”After they identify that a child is undergoing abuse, exploitation or even mental health issues, they will be trained to also respond to the given situation.

    “We will be providing them information on what kind of schemes or actions they can take so they as a community can respond immediately. The training will help them respond, refer and alert the authorities in time so that the child is protected from further abuse, neglect and exploitation,” Seshadri added.

    This will also help protect the child from being trafficked or forced to work as child labour in other states. The aim is to enhance child and adolescent psychosocial well-being, particularly of children in difficult circumstances, by promoting integrated approaches to mental health and protection, he said.

  • Association for Child Protection to hold ‘silent protest’ on September 15 demanding salary, HR policy

    Express News Service

    RAIPUR: The All India Association for Child Protection (AIACP) has decided to hold a peaceful demonstration across the country on Wednesday over inordinate delay in revising the prevailing poor salary, lack of social security benefits and missing human resource policy. 

    The AIACP stated that the salary structure of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (now Mission Vatsalya), is not incommensurate with any other programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), and has not been revised since 2014.

    “Repeated requests and proposals from various states have been submitted to the ministry. With no response, there is nothing but a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity among the employees who are getting salaries below the minimum wage as prescribed by the Supreme Court. In the revised guidelines of Mission Vatsalya we seek the incorporation of the suitable human resource policy and other social security measures like provident fund and employees’ state insurance,” said Asim Chandra Dutta, vice-president AIACP.

    In support of their demands, the employees under Mission Vatsalya will wear black masks and tie black ribbons while performing their official work to express their concerns. 

    A few months ago, the officials of the ministry of WCD had deliberated over the increase in financial support for the Mission Vatsalya in a meeting at Kevadia district of Gujarat.

    The AIACP further claimed that the role of staff had evolved manifold and they shoulder multifarious responsibilities. “So to sustain the dedicated workforce for the effective and successful implementation of the scheme, their demands should be considered,” the AIACP added in their appeal.