“We have to listen to children and trust what they say. One thing children fear the worst is not being believed. If a child feels that they won’t be believed, they won’t express the truth,” Yasmin Ali Haque, UN Resident Coordinator and UNICEF India Representative, has said.
She was responding to a query by a school student on what UNICEF was doing to prevent atrocities against children, especially girls, at an interaction with children as part of the Women and Child Development Department’s Our Responsibility to Children (ORC) programme here on Saturday.
A number of students, their teachers, parents, psychologists, trainers, and police officials were present at the interaction.
Benefits
The children not only spoke about how they benefited from the ORC programme, first launched in 2010, but also put questions to Ms. Haque on a range of topics.
Acknowledging that many children were not safe, Ms. Haque said UNICEF provided information about what all was happening where children were concerned and also looked into what was being done by child protection committees, the police, and the media to prevent such atrocities and how children who faced such atrocities were dealt with.
She stressed the need to create more awareness of the issue among various stakeholders and learn from each other.
Partnership
Ms. Haque said UNICEF was a proud partner of Kerala, but there was still a long way to go, especially on how could gender issues be addressed and local governments supported in this endeavour.
Ms. Haque also spoke to psychologists, teachers, trainers, and police officials about the ORC programme.
