CM unveils guidelines on preventing child abuse

Mere framing rules to check incidents of child abuse was not enough and efforts were needed to spread awareness and ensure proper implementation, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said today.
Releasing the Guidelines for Prevention of Child Abuse formulated by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, she said, "Children are the future and if we abuse them, ill treat them what would be the future society be like?
"It would be a traumatised society.... We all want healthy children, both in body and mind to become the future citizens of our country."
Dikshit said that mere guidelines are not enough. "As society we have to rise up to see what we are going to do with our children."

She stressed that the new guidelines should be sent to all the institutions that deal with children and schools and teachers should also be made aware of them so that they have the desired effect.
"There are plenty of rules, regulations and legal provisions which can punish people who abuse children, but then you cannot expect a little child or even a teenager to take the recourse. She doesn't have the courage, knowledge nor the resources," she said.

DCPCR Chairperson Arun Mathur said the guidelines have been put through a process of vigorous scrutiny to ensure that they are not in conflict with any existing laws.

The guidelines have also taken note of the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (2012).
The guidelines envisage three major stakeholders playing an important role in its implementation--the institution which houses, educates or provides care facilities for the child, individual stakeholders who are in a position of trust and responsibility over the child and the overall community to act as a watch dog and to ensure that the myth and silence around child abuse is broken, Mathur said.
The guidelines also provide a list of relevant notifications, court orders and standing instructions by various government departments which involve aspects of post abuse occurrence, Mathur said.