Guidelines to keep kids safe from abuse

PROTECTING INNOCENCE Guidelines to keep kids safe from abuse

IF YOU are the parent of a school going child, and terrified about the stories of child abuse, sexual abuse and invasion of your child's privacy - such as the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya case - that were reported in the recent past, take heart. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is coming out with a set of guidelines and rules to cover all exigencies and is likely to notify parents, teachers and even children on such issues.

The guidelines will cover physical and medical examinations in schools and orphanages, safety arrangements to be in place for ‘after-school classes' and systems on encouraging children to report abuse of any form.
Joint Secretary, Child Welfare, Loveleen Kacker, told the Hindustan Times, "the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Rules which we had sent to the Law Ministry for approval are expected back any day. We propose to include these Dos and Don'ts as a part of the JJ Rules and will issue the gazette notification. The rules will become effective in about 30 days."

On Wednesday, HT had reported the setting up of an unprecedented high-level inquiry committee by WCD Minister, Renuka Chowdhury, who was horrified after meeting the parents of a ten-year-old boy. The victim had been sodomised for over 18 months, by three school staffers, at knife-point.

This week also saw the emergence of a case of sexual abuse of a minor girl, employed as a domestic help. Her employers had been abusing sexually till she was rescued.
A recent case, which did not classically fit the definition of intentional abuse, was reported when a study purported to be for medical research, conducted at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Delhi, required minor boys to strip and have their genitalia examined for abnormalities. The incident attracted much flak when some parents objected.

Kacker says that one of the new guidelines being issued is "that there shall be no physical or medical examination of a child at a school, residential school, orphanage or any care-giving institution without prior, informed, written consent of the parents or local guardian of the child." Similarly, guidelines will tell parents and teachers the manner in which a child is to be treated when he or she broaches the subject of sexual abuse.

A study commissioned by the Child Welfare Department of ministry earlier this year had found that every second child in India had faced one or more form of sexual abuse. About 22 per cent of 17,000 children interviewed for the national study had reported facing severely violent forms of child abuse.

Source : Hindustan Times,Mumbai Edition,28th July 2007


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