Child protection panel to focus on school dropouts
| Date :05-Jul-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
Child protection panel which is proposed in all wards of the city to curb violence against children will focus on school dropouts. National Institute of Women Child and Youth Development has pointed out that studies of data recorded on RTE Education Portal Madhya Pradesh shows that 4,824 children are dropouts in Bhopal. Apart from this, many children are deprived of education as a child. In the old town of Fanda block, 3,534 children are out of school. Conditions are also complex in emerging cities as smart cities which shows 3,040 school dropouts in Indore, 771 school dropouts in Ujjain, 701 school dropouts in Jabalpur and 680 dropouts in Gwalior. These children are deprived of education due to many economic reasons. Similar situation is also in rural districts where children are out of school in large number.
Child labour, economic insecurity are major reasons. On checking reasons recorded on education portal, it is found that 26% children are out of school due to farming and daily wage labour. In urban areas, 24 per cent of children are out of school due to care of small children and domestic work, in which large number of girls are involved. In State capital around 12% of children are not going to school and are engaged in some kind of work. Apart from this, 7 per cent of students living in suburbs are still unable to go to school due to inconvenience and long distance to reach schools.
Children in the age group of 14 to 18 years, situation will be more challenging. But it is important for all children to get an accurate assessment of all this and especially for children engaged in the work. Child protection panel will be formed in all wards by NGOs in collaboration with UNICEF, MPR and BMC. A total of 15 wards have been selected in connection with safety of children.
It is been observed that small children living in slum areas are exposed to drugs and become addicts due to which they become insecure. Volunteers said that it is therefore necessary that all the departments and NGOs of the government should jointly start a campaign against those who provide drugs to children. It was noted that drugs are easily available to them.