By IANS
New Delhi : All districts in India will have child protection units to prevent torture, stigma and social segregation of children including those infected with AIDS, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said here Tuesday.
“The government has prepared an Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), which will essentially create a strong backbone at the state and districts levels to prevent and respond to any form of child protection failures,” Chowdhury said.
“All states and districts will have child protection units with the budget of over Rs.2,000 crores (Rs.20 billion),” she told reporters, after releasing the Policy Framework for Children and AIDS’ in India, prepared by the ministry of health, ministry of women and child development and National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) with support from Unicef.
Highlighting the initiative, Chowdhury said to begin with ICPS is being implemented in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Andhra Pradesh with a budget of Rs.900 million.
“The child protection concept under the proposed scheme encompasses prevention, protection and rehabilitation aspects with a wide range of services like outreach services, short stay homes, counselling and legal aid, sponsorships, foster care programme, adoption services and childcare homes at the district level,” she explained.
The minister said the new scheme would improve existing child protection services and redressal mechanism, care system for children by implementing minimum standards of care in all forms.
The structure proposed for the ICPS scheme would include a team of 25 people in a state unit and 10 officers in the districts level unit.
These units shall be provided support through various other programmes like the Child Line Scheme that will help in reporting and tracking the progress of each child in the concerned district.
She expressed hope that the new child protection structure would adequately support children and families for better health, education and protection of their rights.