A unique Child Friendly Police Corner was opened at the Salem Town All Women Police Station in Salem city on Friday.
It was the initiative of the police in association with the UNICEF and Knowledge support of Loyola College Hub for Excellence in Child Protection. The initiative was a part of Udhayam – a project to make Salem city safe for children.
Rohini P. Bhajibhakare, District Collector, and Sanjay Kumar, Commissioner of Police, inaugurated the child friendly police corner.
The child friendly police corner is equipped to ensure a conducive atmosphere for children in the police station especially in cases where the children were in need of care and protection. The victims of child sexual abuse and the children alleged to be in conflict with law were kept safely away from the regular criminals and perpetrators brought to the police station.
Ms. Bhajibhakare called upon the UNICEF and other organisations to take initiative for creating awareness among the student community and the parents of rural areas on the violence and sexual abuse against them through their outreach programmes. At the time of IT revolution, the children of the rural areas have to be protected at any cost.
Putting total end to child abuse alone will ensure a meaningful society, she said.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar said that it is a matter of concern that children are being continuously abused. He said that the police headquarters has commended the project of the police.
G. Subbulakshmi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, said that the outreach programme of Udhayam had covered about 2,300 students of 23 schools so far.
The child friendly police corner has been set up to protect the abandoned, run away, missing, and street children.
Varunan Velu, Child Protection Consultant, UNICEF, said that initially under the project of creating violence free schools, capacity building programme was conducted, when training was imparted to 250 police personnel from head constable to assistant commissioner of police.
In the second phase, Udhayam project aimed at creating violence free schools was launched in June last. He said 2,300 were imparted training by experts on good touch, bad touch. These 2,300 peer educators later trained about 23,000 children of different schools in the city.
P. Thangadurai, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime and Traffic, was also present.
