A vulnerability mapping of families in every panchayat in the district will be carried out by anganwadi teachers in the next two months for targeted intervention towards responsible parenting.
This is being done as part of ‘Karuthal Sparsham’, a six-month-long State-wide campaign for responsible parenting launched by the Women and Child Development Department through the district child protection units (DCPUs) on Global Parenting Day on Saturday.
The mapping will be held in compliance with the report of the Shafeeq committee that took an in-depth look at various aspects of child abuse. The plight of Shafeeq, a boy in Idukki tortured by his father and stepmother, came to light in 2013.
“Such a survey is significant since we have noticed that in many cases involving child victims coming before the Child Welfare Committee, the perpetrators were close relatives of the victims. Families in which either of the parents had either re-married or was in a live-in arrangement without being divorced and families with siblings having criminal records were among the most vulnerable categories in need of intervention for responsible parenting,” Hafseena M.K.P., Protection Officer, non-institutional care, Ernakulam DCPU, told The Hindu . The last edition of State-wide vulnerability mapping during 2017-18 had pegged the total number of such families at 32,654 and 1,088 respectively, of which Ernakulam accounted for 2,927 and 126 respectively.
A good parenting clinic will be set up in the district by August in connection with the campaign, though the finer points of the proposed clinic is yet to be finalised. The State conceived the campaign Karuthal Sparsham in the wake of parental torture of children reported from Thodupuzha and Eloor earlier this year.
Classes for trainers
The district-level classes for trainers for the campaign will be held on June 28 and 29. Awareness classes on responsible parenting will be held at various levels between July and October.
In the lead-up to the launch of the campaign, a live online awareness programme on responsible parenting was held in association with Victers Channel on May 29. Aluva, Perumbavoor, Muvattupuzha, North Paravur and Kochi were among the 62 centres across the State where the programme was aired through video walls. The district-level launch of the campaign involved a day-long seminar on parenting on Saturday.
