The basic challenge facing Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) across the country is lack of infrastructure, said Kushal Singh, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), who was in the city on Friday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Regional Convention of Child Welfare Committees, organised by the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (TNSCPCR) and NCPCR, she said that they were trying to involve CWCs in the various activities of the national commission.
This was the sixth of seven such conventions that the NCPCR is organising across the country.
She said that the objective of the conventions was to ensure the voice of the CWCs was heard at the national and state level. “We will raise the issues that the CWCs highlight,” she said.
Speaking at the convention, she said that child rights institutions in the country are still at a nascent stage, and there was a need to streamline their functioning. She called for greater synergy between the NCPCR, SCPCRs and the CWCs. “While the NCPCR and SCPCRs raise issues at the national and state level, the CWCs are dealing with the violations at the grassroots. If we have greater coordination, it would be to the advantage of all,” she said.
She said that currently, CWCs did not have the infrastructure and wherewithal to do any additional work. “For any additional inquiries that we are requesting the CWCs to conduct, we are providing them the funds. Till now we were asking the district administration to send us reports. Now we are approaching the CWCs in several places,” she said.
B. Valarmathi, minister for social welfare and nutritious noon meal programme, inaugurated the convention, and Saraswathi Rangasamy, chairperson, TNSCPCR, was also present.