BHUBANESWAR: As winter has led to a dip in mercury level across the State, the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) on Wednesday asked district collectors to ensure that no child sleeps under the open sky in chilly weather conditions.
The order from the Commission came after it undertook a suo motu inquiry and looked into the complaints related to violation and deprivation of child rights under CPCR. The Commission has directed the collectors to comply with its order within 15 days.
"It has been observed that there are children along with their homeless parents sleeping under open sky in the chilly weather condition in many urban areas. This raises serious concern for their safety and security," Commission Chairperson Sandhyabati Pradhan said adding, this makes them vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.
As per the direction, collectors will have to organise special awareness drives for identification of vulnerable children and their families in all urban local bodies under their districts. They will also have to put in place a dedicated telephone/Whatsapp helpline number and take steps to attend grievances within 30 minutes of receiving the complaints.
The collectors have also been asked to ready shelters for urban homeless. In the absence of any permanent night shelter, they will make arrangement for temporary shelter in coordination with the urban local bodies and State Urban Development Agency.
The OSCPCR chairman asked the collectors to put adequate safety measures in place and organise counselling programmes for the urban homeless on COVID-19 guidelines and precautionary measures.
Two days back, the State Urban Development Agency had directed municipal commissioners of five corporations and 15 executive officers of municipalities to take expeditious steps to create urban shelters for the homeless during the winter. The civic bodies were earlier asked to submit proposals for construction of such shelters or use available buildings without wasting time.