STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The State Child Protection Society (SCPS), under the Women and Child Development Department of the Government of Assam, organized a 90-day campaign on child protection on June 12 at the Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara. It was attended by representatives from various other government departments, universities, academic institutions, UNICEF, and NGOs.
SCPS, commemorating the World Day against Child Labour, launched this 90-day campaign to raise awareness about child protection issues, namely child labour, child marriage, child trafficking, and child substance abuse. As part of the campaign, a multi-stakeholder meeting was organized in which representatives from the Panchayat and Rural Development, Home, School Education, and Health Departments participated.
While welcoming the participants, Dr. Preety Lekha Deka, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), shared that although SCPS has taken all possible measures to address these issues since its inception, they still exist, which calls for collaborative efforts between various stakeholders. This campaign will simultaneously happen all across the state and throughout the campaign; it will involve other departments, schools and colleges, and non-governmental organisations as well. In his address, Mukesh Chandra Sahu, Principal Secretary to the Government of Assam (DWCD), said we need to take collective responsibility, and this campaign is aimed at bringing together all those people, institutions, and other individuals.
Justice (Retd.) Mir Alfaz Ali said that there are a plethora of laws related to children, despite the fact that these issues exist. This means these are more of a social issue and not merely about enforcing laws; it requires a change in mindset and the way we look at any children’s issue.
Partha Pratim Majumdar, Secretary to the Government of Assam (DWCD), shared the background of this campaign. He gave an insight regarding the cases of child abuse from January to December 2022, where 832 cases of child marriage were registered, 109 cases of child trafficking were registered, 421 cases of child labour were registered, and 685 cases of child sexual abuse were registered. He also said this data do not match with the government, as the cases registered with the Assam Police do not reach us. Famous Assamese actor Ravi Sarma urged people to be sensitive to every child, not just their own.
This awareness campaign will be carried out through a variety of activities such as Childathon, street plays, convergence meetings, hoarding, signature campaigns, and wall painting. Also, there will be social media engagements where all the activities that will be carried out by district child protection units will be highlighted in the social media handles, and all posts will be tagged to SCPS social media pages. An awareness meeting with media houses will be organized with the media fraternity to brief them about child protection issues and raise their sensitivity to the issues. The district child protection units in districts will organise awareness campaigns through mobile van campaigns with LED billboards visiting every village or block in the districts.
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