Children’s Safety

Why in news?

Humanitarian Aid Organisation’s survey reports that one out of every two Indian children has experienced sexual abuse.

What are the reasons behind increasing Child abuse?

In large cities, children spend as many as 8 to 9 hours a day away from home, and those in smaller towns and rural areas spend 5 to 6 hours outside the home.
There is a three-way trust deficit between schools, parents and the Government, especially when there is a gruesome incidence of violence against children, gets aggravated.

What measures needs to be taken in schools?

An open dialogue involving all three stakeholders will go a long way towards to enable the building preventive response mechanisms.
There is a need to develop a Uniform Child Protection Policy for all schools private or government, and even tribal ashrams in remote parts of the country.
The policy should emphasise on ‘gatekeeping’ to ensure that the recruitment of both teaching and non-teaching staff is done after thorough police verification and psycho-social assessment.
Also trained counsellors must be enrolled mandatorily in schools who can both prevent and detect abuse of children.
All teachers need to be sensitised about child abuse, taught to recognise it and made aware of laws such as the POCSO Act .
Awareness Sessions for children on safety and prevention of abuse also ought to become part of the curriculum.

What are the Existing child abuse preventive mechanisms?

National Policy for Children, 2013 - recognises every person below the age of eighteen years as a child and covers all children within the territory and jurisdiction of the country.
Four key priority areas in Policy are

Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act 2012 - It protects children from offenses of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and pornography and to provide a child-friendly system for the trial of these offences.
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2015

Source: Business Line