It’s been a month since Anurag Kundu took over as the Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right (DCPCR). The youngest ever chairperson plans to bring fresh energy to DCPCR and create more awareness for child protection among the public.
What is your aim for Delhi regarding the protection of child rights?
We aim to make Delhi child labour free by 2023. DCPCR is sincerely committed to this and we are working on a comprehensive and coordinated strategy. The rescue operations to free child labourers will continue but now these ad-hoc efforts need to become the part of a larger strategy. During the pandemic, there are reports of an increase in the number of child labourers, which is why this solemn commitment of DCPCR becomes more important.
What are your priorities for the protection of child rights?
We have never prioritized pregnancy care. It should be the government’s responsibility to start the care of a mother. As per the 2019 data, in Delhi 11 per cent of deliveries happen outside hospitals while 89 per cent are happening in institutional facilities. We aim to bring this up to 100 per cent in three to four years. Another goal for DCPCR is prioritizing the health of the lactating mother. Another core issue is malnourishment – one in every three children suffers from malnourishment in the national capital. This is very high. Almost 35 per cent of our young girls are anaemic. We need to change this.
What are the specific challenges that children face keeping in mind the Covid-19 pandemic?
India, over the last 70 years, has made important and hardearned gains in ensuring our children are immunised against Polio, measles, TB, diphtheria, tetanus, and other such diseases. My biggest worry is that we may lose decades of gains because the entire government machinery is now focused on Covid-19 management. We have commissioned an ‘Immunisation Survey’ for Delhi to find out what kind of problems people are facing in accessing vaccines. The report will be out in six weeks. Next week, we will launch a helpline also in this regard, so people can call and tell us about their issues. There will be a socio-economic impact of this pandemic. We will see a lot of kids dropping out from schools. This is why we need to re-organise our priorities.
A big part of child rights protection starts from schools. What is DCPCR going to do regarding school children?
How do you plan to involve the public with the subject of child protection? We plan to engage school management into this. I have talked to many experts. We will also include children. If every child commits that he/she will not let child labour happen in their homes then we will see a change. This initiative will specially focus on private schools. We will sensitise every student. Child labour elimination must become a movement. We need a robust comprehensive child protection policy in our schools. Currently, there are some grey areas. An expert committee has been set up to formulate a clear cut Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Delhi government launched a special counselling helpline number during the pandemic. How has been the response so far?
We have received 49,000 calls till June, out of which 20,000 calls were from children. Many times the children just want to talk to the counsellor. Parents also called and wanted help dealing with the stress due to the pandemic and the ways to keep children engaged during the lockdown.