Kids to get protection under new project

NOIDA: Children in Gautam Budh Nagar who face any danger to their life and childhood are all set to be protected by the administration with the formation of the District Child Protection Committee. This project comes under the union government sponsored Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) that aims to protect children from or against any perceived or real danger or risk to their life, their personhood and childhood.
The first meeting of the committee was held in the district collectorate in Surajpur on Thursday."This meeting was the first building block for the committee from whereon we will pursue other activities related to protection of child rights," said Kumari Shipra, nodal officer of the committee. The meeting was presided over by the chief development officer (CDO) of Gautam Budh Nagar Sheetal Singh Verma.
This committee would, at the district level, implement, supervise, monitor and evaluate all the child protection programmes being implemented under the ICPS, including grant-in-aid schemes.
Apart from the Zilla Panchayat President and the district magistrate, who are the chairman and the co-chairman of the committee, respectively, all SDMs, BDOs, officials from the health and labour departments, and the chief medical officer, among others, are also members of the committee.
There are provisions for setting up adoption houses for the orphaned and care centres for the needy or the vulnerable under the ICPS. A Childline Service would also be made available for children in distress, especially those in need of care and protection so as to provide them medical services, shelter, rescue from abuse, counselling and repatriation.
"We have nominated two NGOs too to work with us in the scheme," said Kumari Shipra. ICPS functions as a partnership between the government and the civil society under the overarching responsibility of the central and state governments.
"Given the fact that Gautam Buddh Nagar is a newly carved district, there is a need for shelter homes for the homeless kids in the district. We will soon put forth a demand for setting up such shelters with the state government," said CDO Sheetal Singh Verma.