Bhopal: Government, society should work together to fulfil children’s needs, says chief minister Shivraj Singh

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the government and society have to work in tandem to ensure that the basic needs of children related to food, clothing and shelter are met.

Also, they should receive education and should be protected from all kinds of exploitation, he added.

Chouhan was speaking on the second day of a two-day conference, organised by Child Conservation Foundation, an NGO, at the Academy of Administration in the city on Sunday. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, representatives of 20 states participated in the event.

Policy charter presented to CM

The organisers of the event presented a policy charter for child safety to chief minister. The charter proposes:

* Formulating MP State Child Safeguarding and Protection Policy along the lines of National Child Protection Guidelines 2018.

* Establishing de-addiction centres for children in all districts.

* Developing cadre of psychologists for counselling children in schools.

* Providing support to child victims of sexual violence especially if the perpetrator is form the family.

* Launching an awareness campaign to keep children safe in the cyber world.

* Ensuring that medical boards issue age and disability certificates in a stipulated time frame and more responsibly.

* Capacity building and orientation of stakeholders child safeguarding and protection guidelines.

* Provisions and guidelines for protection of children with disabilities should be made and implemented in all government institutes.

* Launching of a campaign for spreading awareness on child safeguarding and protection in all 313 blocks.

* Developing a nodal agency for coordination, convergence and facilitation of the functioning of different departments with regard to protection and welfare of children.