Punjab to launch mission to check crimes against children

Punjab government today asked all the deputy commissioners and district police chiefs to launch a mission to check crimes against children in their areas and ensure their safety in all public places.
Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal said that the government would also launch a multimedia campaign to generate awareness about various Acts protecting women and children.
He was inaugurating a sensitisation workshop organised jointly by Mahatma Gandhi State Institute for Public Administration and Punjab State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights on Child Rights here.
Kaushal advocated the need for strong mechanism for effective implementation of Child and Women Rights Acts enacted at national and state levels for providing much needed support to these vulnerable sections of the society.

The sensitisation process of the functionaries of the implementation agencies for schemes of social sectors needs to be further geared up by organising workshops and seminars at divisional and district levels, he said.
Kaushal asked the Child Rights Commission to launch a website and prepare a compendium illustrating various measures for protection of Child Rights which should be available with every functionary in different departments dealing with child protection projects.
Strongly pleading for combating malnutrition among children, Kaushal said that while reviewing the implementation of midday meal scheme in Punjab, schools have observed a lot of deficiencies, which have been rectified.

He said that child labour was banned in Punjab and he has asked the members of civil society not to employ children as domestic help, at road side eateries and other unorganised sectors of employment.