One-stop solution centres in Pondy to protect child rights

Puducherry would soon have one-stop solution centres to protect child rights on a pilot basis in the country. All government and private hospitals would have one centre each.

Stating this at a press conference here Saturday, a member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights R G Anand said the state-level Commission for Protection of Rights has been asked to recommend to the welfare department to open the centres in all the government and private hospitals. He said the purpose of the centres was to provide all service by the police, the health department and other concerned institutions under one roof to the children facing harassment and other disturbances and to provide un-delayed medical treatment whenever necessary.

He said the state Commission for Protection of Child Rights has been asked to recommend to the government to open such centres. Anand said that to generate awareness among the parents and others a meeting was being held later in the day in JIPMER and the centre proposed to be started now in Puducherry would be taken as a model. Depending upon the successful working of the centres, the plan would be expanded to other parts in the country.

He said the National Commission had also recommended to the government to frame a draft plan to enhance emotional support through counselling to the children facing traumatic experiences. This programme envisaged formation of panels at each of the ten communal blocks here to provide counselling and enhancing emotional support to the children.

Each of the tenblocks here would have one psychiatrist or counsellor to provide services to the children in their blocks. "Counselling is more important than anything else for the children facing harassment so that their confidence could be protected," he said.

Chairperson of the state Commission Devi Priya, who was present, said presently only one centre was functioning in the Rajiv Gandhi Government Maternity Hospital. But, parents and the children were facing practical difficulties to approach the authorities located in different places. "To provide the service of all departments including the police under one roof and to simplify the procedures the one-stop crisis centre would function soon in the hospitals," she said..

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