IT News
New Delhi, Nov 22:
On the occasion of the International Day for Children under the shadow of the COVID pandemic, Child Rights and You (CRY) and the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) collaborated to organise a national level webinar. Titled ‘Addressing Child Protection Concerns During COVID-19 And Beyond’, the half day-long webinar focused on multiple aspects of child protection issues during this critical time, and also reflected upon some of the emerging concerns demanding government and civil society attention.
Set in the backdrop of huge disruptions of child protection services and mechanisms during the pandemic, the objective of the webinar was to bring together stakeholders from the civil society, academia, bilateral and multilateral organisations to deliberate upon the various issues related to child protection and identify areas for joint action including generating further evidence and solutions to the emerging concerns.
Setting the context of the discussion, Priti Mahara, Director, Policy Research and Advocacy at CRY said, “More than 100 countries across the world have seen disruptions in services related to prevention and response to child protection violations, with countries in South Asia reporting maximum disruption. India being one of the largest South Asian countries, disruptions in the child protection services will have implications nationally as well as at the regional levels.”
Highlighting the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing inequities and vulnerabilities of children, Priti said, “A crisis of such huge scale is bound to affect children’s protection and well-being, and chances of children falling out of the safety net may witness exponential increase. It is therefore everyone’s responsibility to come forward and join hands together to address the issues and ensure that children are given the maximum priority in weathering the crisis.”
The webinar was moderated by the vetaran and eminent child rights advocate Karuna Bishnoi, the guest speakers included Sonal Kapoor, Founder-Director, Protsahan India Foundation; Bharti Ali, Co-founder and Director, HAQ Centre for Child Rights; Protiva Kundu, Thematic Lead – Social Sector, CBGA; Dr. Shekhar Sheshaadri, Senior Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS; Sandhyaa Mishra, Co-Chair, India Alternative Care Network (IACN) Steering Committee and the Program Director at Miracle Foundation; Prabhat Kumar, Deputy Director, Child Protection, Save the Children, India; Apar Gupta, Executive Director, Internet Freedom Foundation and Asadullah, The Programme Head at CBGA.
While Sonal Kapoor of Protsahan India Foundation insisted that the work around child protection needs to go beyond the service delivery mode and must bring in the rights-based approach, Bharti Ali of the HAQ Centre For Child Rights brought to the table some fundamental aspects of the legal frameworks related to child protection issues.
Bringing in the critical aspects of budget allocation, Ms Protiva Kundu of CBGA said, “In terms of child protection, government financing has an important role to play. However, the budget for children shows a continuous decrease over the past 5 years, and child protection has been the most resource-sterved area. In 2021-22, the share of budgetary allocation (BE) for child protection in the Union government budget for children was 1.27%, falling from 1.98% in 2020-21.”
“There is a dire need for adequate allocation for every component of child protection programme, including construction of CCIs, recruitment of human resources, capacity building of personnel working on child protection, among many others,” Protiva added.
Dr. Shekhar Sheshaadri, a Senior Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NIMHANS, highlighted the importance of addressing the psycho-social well-being of children, as he brought to the table the multiple effects of the pandemic on the young and tender minds of children, especially experiencing parental loss during the second wave.
Sandhyaa Mishra, the Co-Chair at IACN deliberated on the vulnerabilities of children residing in Child Care Centres (CCI) and advocated for promoting alternative care and service on the continuum of care.
Prabhat Kumar, the Deputy Director of Save the Children India, talked about the critical yet less-discussed aspects of the effects of climate change on children, as he examined the multiple impacts in the form of hunger, family economic distress, domestic abuse, vulnerability, among others, and warned that the rise in extreme climate crisis will impact child protection outcomes.
Apar Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation stressed upon the online safety issues of children during the pandemic and talked about the importance of having a full-proof data protection law in the country. According to him, while children should never be denied of their exposure to internet, it is vital to ensure that their safety is not compromised.
