Initiatives For Child Protection In India By Bal Raksha Bharat

Initiatives on Children in Street Situations (CISS) To Support Child Protection

Our interventions for CISS are aimed at generating evidence towards the magnitude of the problems, policy analysis and finding suitable solutions to address the issue holistically. As a leading child protection organization, we have been working to improve the lives of children in street situations since 2009. In 2012 we came out with a publication named ‘Surviving on the Streets- one of the first census survey studies on street children done by Bal Raksha Bharat. The study showed that there were about 51,000 street children in Delhi alone. Subsequently, we conducted a census and survey of Street Children in five cities of India and found that there were nearly 85,000 children on the streets without a valid identity, place of shelter, proper education, and health facilities.

Another hallmark of our work in this area is the collaboratively developing with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), a Standard Operating Procedure for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situations. The SOP was officially released by the then Minister of Woman and Child development Smt. Maneka Gandhi. The SOP has been rolled out in 9 states of India with relevant stakeholders forming steering groups to monitor the implementation of the SOP.

In 2020, based on our experience of implementing the Standard Operating Procedure for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situations (SOP) in several states, Bal Raksha Bharat (also known as Save the Children), in collaboration with NCPCR, revised the existing SOP to cater to the needs of Children in Street Situations through a family strengthening approach. This revision integrated key elements of child protection services to ensure comprehensive support for these vulnerable children. The Supreme Court of India took cognizance of the SOP 2.0 and directed states to ensure its effective implementation.

Strengthening Child Protection Policy in India

In 2013 when the ambitious Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) programme was rolled out across the states, Bharat Raksha Bharat supported Women and Child Development Departments to capacitate the newly inducted staff who were from different backgrounds. With this aim, a Competency Based Training (CBT) programme was launched for training of District level functionaries of ICPS.

Child Protection Services provided by the cadre included awareness generation, psycho-social counseling, access to education/health services, referral to institutional care and facilitating linkages with government sponsored social protection schemes. The initiative, appreciated and acknowledged by government duty-bearers, improved response time for addressing concerns, boosted community cohesiveness, provided employment opportunities for women, and promoted child-friendly and gender-sensitive practices while addressing protection risks.

Interventions to Fight Child Marriage and Strengthen Child Protection

The National Plan of Action, 2016 by the Ministry of Women & Child Development seeks to end child marriage. Furthering the Ministry’s mission and vision, we, as a child protection NGO, implemented a programme, ‘Marriage: No Child’s Play’ from 2016 to 2020 in the state of Rajasthan. This programme was implemented through an MoU with the Directorate of Women Empowerment, Women and Child Development Department, Government of Rajasthan.

We collaborated with the Government of Rajasthan to extend technical support for the development of the State Strategy and Action Plan on Child Marriage and support its implementation in 45 villages of two districts (Tonk and Jodhpur). Through this initiative, we reached 5,864 adolescent girls, helping curb the incidence of child marriage. Numerous villages in the intervention areas were declared child marriage-free. This led to the replication of the project in two other districts of the state: Banswara and Dungrapur. This effort is aligned with child protective services India, ensuring the protection and empowerment of vulnerable children, especially girls, from harmful practices such as child marriage.

Addressing Child Labour Through Effective Child Protection Policy

We are implementing a project, ‘Work: No Child’s Business’ in the states of Bihar, Delhi, and Rajasthan since June 2019 to support the ongoing work of the Government to address the issue of child labour. This initiative is closely aligned with child protection services, focusing on safeguarding vulnerable children from exploitation. In Delhi, we are working with children in the garment industry in two districts, namely; East and South East Delhi. In Bihar, we are working with children engaged in domestic work, agricultural labour, and other forms of work in six districts: Araria, Gaya, East Champaran, Kishanganj, Nalanda, and Sitamarhi. As part of this initiative, we are working for the Empowerment of Children to pursue quality education and (future) employability within a supportive family and community environment; Increased enrolment and retention in quality formal education or, if relevant, bridge schooling, and improved access to youth employment, and collaborating with Government to support in enforcing relevant child-rights based laws and implement policies on child labour, education, youth economic empowerment, and social security.

Through the initiative, 3318 children (6-14 years) have been enrolled in formal schools and have 407 youth and adults in the age group of 18-24 years have been enrolled for various vocational training courses like Beauty and Wellness, Retail and Sales, Hospitality, General Duty Assistant, Digital Marketing, Assistant Electrician, Hospital Front Desk Executive and Food and Beverages. We are also building capacities of Child Protection Committees, in close collaboration with the District Child Protection Units (DCPU) in the two intervention states of Delhi and Bihar. These capacity augmentation programs are aimed at ensuring the communities to discuss and take-up issues related to child protection policy in India in their areas. In 2021, we collaborated with the Department of Labour, Government of Rajasthan for a joint collaborative campaign on anti-child labour. This joint collaborative campaign had series of activities like 42 days anti-Child labour campaign, releasing of anti-Child labour song and child labour research report, street play on anti-Child labour, installation of hoardings on anti- child labour.

Promoting Psycho-Social Wellbeing of Children Through Child Protection Services

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in heightened exposure of children to risks including neglect, abandonment, violence, and exploitation. Bal Raksha Bharat has been working on safeguarding the physical and emotional well-being of children through Risk Communication and Community Engagement, contributing to child protection in India. Child-friendly materials/resources were developed and disseminated through audio-visual, mass media (radio/cable TV), and traditional paper-based media. We also set up (tele) counselling services with the support of trained/professional counsellors to capacitate the protection workforce to provide Psychosocial First Aid at the community level and promote child protection. Additionally, we linked children and young people reporting mental health issues to helplines, specialized institutes, and/or other referral services.

Enabling Online Safety of Children and Promoting Child Protection in India

Online child safety has garnered due attention in recent years with increasing access to the Internet, especially in the post-pandemic era. Efforts by the Indian Government to ensure online child safety have been commendable. Bal Raksha Bharat, a leading child protection NGO, has been implementing a project since 2021 to support the ongoing work of the government on online safety for children in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The project has been implemented jointly in collaboration and consultation with the state government and select NGOs and private organizations working on the issue of cybersecurity. As part of the intervention, 586 teachers have been trained on the online safety module, and they, in turn, have trained more than 10,000 children on how to be safe when online.