Abdul Wahab Khan | NT
PANAJI: With the state government dragging its feet on formation of child protection unit (CPU) for the past six years, the state has failed to receive central funds for child care homes under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). Under the scheme, financial assistance on sharing basis of 75:25 is contributed by Centre and state towards the child care homes.
The state had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for the flagship programme in 2010 and had constituted a state child protection society (SCPS) in 2014. But, the child protection unit led by a child protection officer is not in place till date.
Without the unit, the administration has not been able to utilise the funds released under the ICPS programme. An official said, “We had moved a proposal to the government seeking its approval to appoint child protection officer and other related staff to constitute the CPU two months ago.”
The district child protection unit has a crucial role in implementation of the scheme which will focus on supervising and monitoring all institutions/agencies providing residential facilities to children in districts as outlined under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000.
In order to ensure effective service delivery, the ICPS needs to be implemented by constituting state and District Child Protection Societies, as the fundamental units at the state and district levels.
The ICPS aims at preventing child labour, begging by children, trafficking and exploitation of children and provides financial assistance to the child care homes to develop infrastructure and to fill the gap in existing child protection mechanism to ensure that necessary care, protection and support is given to a child in need.
Due to the absence of the DCPU in the state, the welfare schemes have taken a toll in the last six years. The ‘Prabhat’ scheme formulated in 2013 for adult victims of commercial sexual exploitation has failed as a meager assistance of Rs 2,500 is given by the state government.
Due to absence of child protection officer, there is no proper monitoring and supervision of child care institutions and moreover poor grant-in-aid of Rs 400 per child per month provided to the institution with premises and Rs 500 in case of institution working from rented premises as a result they are hamstrung in providing better services and building better infrastructure.
There are a total 50 child care institutions and 7 shelter homes registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. These include child care institutes and shelter homes run by Provedoria (Centre for Girls – Goa Velha and Centre for Boys – Candolim) which receive grants directly from the state government.
An official source in the woman and child development department said that the ICPS is a central government scheme that was created merging all previous child protection policies under one umbrella in 2009 but the state had already implemented some of its components since 1987 by way of giving grants to the child care homes. Under ICPS, child care institutions are supposed to receive Rs 2,000.