Maneka Gandhi, Prakash Javadekar to hold high-level meeting on safety, protection of children

Taking note of the seriousness of incidents of child abuse in schools, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Human Resource Development will hold a high-level meeting on the safety and protection of children in schools, on Wednesday.

The meeting will be co-chaired by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi and the Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javdekar.

The officials of the two ministries, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan will also participate in the meeting.

Earlier, in a telephonic discussion, Maneka Gandhi requested Javadekar to consider suggestions like having women employees as the support staff and bus drivers/conductors in the schools, screening of educational films on child sexual abuse in the schools, popularising POCSO e-Box and Childline 1098 through NCERT publications and having strict norms for employing the support staff.

Maneka Gandhi has also given the suggestions in her letter to the HRD Minister.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has already started its outreach campaign for protection of children through electronic as well as social media.

Maneka Gandhi stated that the basic objective of the meeting of the two ministries is to develop a set of guidelines and protocols which schools must follow so that the children remain protected from any kind of abuse or physical/mental harm.

The WCD Minister further stated that the parents, guardians and teachers should remain vigilant about the children as well as their behavior and any suspected situation should be reported immediately on the Childline No.1098 and the POCSO e-Box.

This comes in the wake of the gruesome killing of a seven-year-old at the Ryan International School in Gurugram.