The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stress laid on empowerment of child

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Sunday, Jul 05, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Stress laid on empowerment of child

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

Chalking out plans: A workshop on ‘Capacity Building Programme on Child Protection’ for labour inspectors in progress in Chennai on Friday.

Chennai: On an average four to eight children, who are victims of trafficking or go missing and run away from their homes, are rescued from the Chennai Central Railway Station alone in a day. Of around 180-200 such children a month, 95 per cent are boys.

The children are mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar.

These findings of a study conducted recently by World Vision India were disclosed at a gathering of labour inspectors in the city on Friday. The study was based on the number of children rescued by the non-governmental organisation, which, along with Don Bosco, works for Childline in the Central station. Koyambedu, Tambaram, Ayanavaram and Anna Nagar are the other vulnerable areas from where children are rescued by social organisations.

“In May, 230 cases were reported by Childline and this number usually increases till December,” said Y. Francis, city coordinator of Chennai Childline.

He was participating in a workshop on ‘Capacity Building Programme on Child Protection’. It was conducted by the Departments of Social Defence and Labour and World Vision India . Additional Commissioner for Labour P. Karuppasamy said migrant child labourers are becoming a problem for a developed State like Tamil Nadu. “Empowerment of the child is the underlining fact to end the problem,” he said. He called for a similar orientation programme to be organised for policy-makers, including Secretary and Principal Secretary so that they too get sensitised to the rights and responsibilities of the child.

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