BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government has decided to dedicate a ‘A Day for Children’ in every quarter to take stock of grievances of vulnerable children across districts and ensure their rights to social security and education.
The Women and Child Development (WCD) department on Friday asked the district collectors to fix the day on which issues related to child welfare would be discussed by all stakeholders. Currently, there are various district, block, panchayat, village level committees and task forces under many acts and schemes to look into various issues like child protection, adolescent empowerment, child marriage, child labour and implementation of ICDS.
Despite the WCD department mandating that the committees meet at regular intervals to look into the issues, none of them are doing so as a result of which, several State and Central government schemes for child rights are not being implemented in the true spirit. Besides, many issues related to children at district and block-level are not being resolved on time. Some committees are even lying defunct, a fact that has been admitted by the WCD department.
Director of ICDS Arvind Agarwal said the initiative is aimed at streamlining the entire system as far as child welfare is concerned. “Earlier, there was no coherence on what these committees are doing to address child welfare issues locally. This exclusive day will make the above-mentioned committees functional and there will be enhanced coordination among them and the authorities concerned,” he said.
On the specific day, the chairpersons of existing committees and task forces at district and sub-divisional level will convene meetings along with all stakeholders to take stock of grievances related to children, review implementation of child protection related laws and schemes for child welfare including ending child marriages, preventing child trafficking, child labour, sexual abuse and violence against children and adolescents.