Child care homes should follow the government’s rules and regulations to ensure safety of children in their respective institutions, speakers at an awareness workshop said.
Inaugurating the workshop, organised by the Childline nodal organisation of Bishop Heber College and the anti-human traffic unit of the city police here on Monday, Police Commissioner Sanjay Mathur said all homes should be registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. Apart from care and food, the homes should invest in security apparatus such as closed circuit television system to have an effective monitoring system in their institutions. The district-level officers have been instructed to inspect the homes periodically to ensure that the prescribed rules framed for them were being adhered to strictly.
Many incidents have indicated that persons known to children had harmed them by way of abuse and sexual assaults, he said underscoring the need to protect children from all forms of exploitation. Police in Tiruchi city had been sensitised to treat every case of missing person or child very seriously, he said adding that information relating to missing children / persons were being uploaded in Tamil Nadu police web site in an effort to trace their whereabouts, he added.
T. Jayanthi Ranee, member, State Commission for Protection of Children Rights, said the commission had embarked on the job of inspecting child care institutions to ensure that they adhered to the prescribed rules and norms. Child care homes should segregate children age-wise to prevent any scuffle between them and enable them understand each other better.
Indira Gandhi, chairman, Child Welfare Committee, said broken family was one among the reasons for children to leave their homes. All that a child needed was warmth and affection, she said. J. Godwin Prem Singh, director, Childline Nodal Organisation, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchi, and Principal D. Paul Dhayabaran spoke. Representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) participated in the workshop. The workshop featured sessions on various topics including the role of NGOs in caring the homeless children, role of AHTU police for the homeless children and care for the homeless children by government.
