Members' shortage hits child panel

BHOPAL: The state government, which hardly misses a chance to harp on ?Beti Bachao Abhiyan' and importance of education of girl child, has not yet appointed members of State Commission for Child Rights (SCPCR) despite completion of term for five out of six members.
Five members of SCPCR Vibhanshu Joshi, Vijaya Shukla, Reena Gujral, Asha Yadav and Reeta Upmanyu have completed their term.The sixth member R H Lata will complete her term on September 10. After that only chairperson Usha Chaturvedi will remain, hitting efficiency of the commission as in the absence of it would not be able to take cognizance or even serve notices to anyone.
Chaturvedi, too, will retire in December on attaining superannuation and will not be able to complete her term up till April next year.
Similar is the situation in State Women's Commission (SWC) where all members, including chairperson Upma Rai will complete their term in mid-September and only one member Kavita Patidar would be left.
Principal secretary, women and child development (WCD) department J N Kansotia told TOI, "Members of the commissions are nominated by the state government. It is under process."
Under Right to Education (RTE) Act, the responsibility of the SCPCR is manifold as it has been empowered to act as monitoring agency under the Act.
The mismatch between resources at commission's command and scope of its work becomes pronounced considering that monitoring of RTE will involve keeping a watch on about 50,000 lower primary and higher primary schools across the state besides and looking into violation complaints and addressing concerns.
Apart from the responsibility related to RTE, the commission is tasked with reviewing and monitoring every aspect of child care and protection issues from all districts of the state, ranging from health and nutrition issues to those of child abuse and child labour.
The SWC, on the other hand, is the nodal agency for redressing women-related problems of domestic violence, abuse, dowry harassment, kidnapping, sexual abuse at workplace etc. Chairperson Upma Rai is the head of monitoring committee of the PCPNDT Act in the state.