understanding child protection (cp) and cp mechanisms in india

January 2009www.childlineindia.org.in [email protected]

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Protection and MDG goals in India

A perspective by

CHILDLINE India Foundation


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Understanding Child Protection (CP) and

CP Mechanisms in India


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CHILDLINE and Child Protection

• CHILDLINE 1098 is India’s only emergency outreach helpline for children in of care and protection. The CHILDLINE 1098 service is a unique civil society initiative supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.

• In 83 cities, across 25 states, logging in 2 million calls a year nationally CHILDLINE has miles to go. There are 444 million children in India and our target is to create universal access for every child in India by 2020.


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Multi Pronged Child Protection Strategy • CHILDLINE envisions a protective environment for our

children one where in a set of policy, legislation, programs, services, procedure, protocols, and standards have been set in place to ensure overall development of all children and protection from intended or unintended harm.

• Beginning at the child through the CHILDLINE 1098 emergency response CHILDLINE functions as a link between the child and the system creating access to emergency basic services like healthcare, shelter, rescue from exploitative situations.

• Through systematic knowledge management CHILDLINE uses its data to generate information and evidence that is used for monitoring child protection systems in the field and advocacy for the creation of national child protection systems.


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What is Child Protection?Source: Child Protection information sheet , UNICEF

• UNICEF uses the term ‘child protection’ to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitationand abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. UNICEF’s child protection programmes also target children who are uniquely vulnerable to these abuses, such as when living without parental care, in conflict with the law and in armed conflict.

• Children subjected to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV/AIDS infection, educational problems, displacement, homelessness, vagrancy and poor parenting skills later in life.


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Child Protection Defined….• Creating an environment favourable for the

overall development of the child with a guarantee of his/her overall protection.

• Act by which the rights of the child are safeguarded and the child is provided with an environment that is conducive to enjoy his/her childhood and grow up with dignity.

• Set of government and private services, philosophies, standards, guidelines and procedures designed to protect children from both intentional and unintentional harm.


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Protective Environment

• Where a child is assured of living in safety and dignity

• Helps ensure that children are in school, laws are in place to punish those who exploit children, governments are truly committed to protection, communities are aware of the risks which children face.

• All levels of society-from the family to the international community work together


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Elements of a Protective Environment• Attitudes, traditions, customs, behaviour and practices

• Governmental commitment to fulfilling protection rights

• Legislation and enforcement

• Open discussion, including the engagement of media and civil society

• Children’s life skills, knowledge and participation

• Capacity of those in contact with the child

• Basic and Targeted Services

• Monitoring


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Key Stakeholders in child protection:

• Children

• Family

• Community

• State

• Civil Society


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The primary responsibility

State bears primary responsibility for building protective environment for children through:

• Guiding policy• legislation• Service provision• monitoring• building human capacity


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Child Protection framework in India

• The Constitution of India-basic law of the country has special provisions for children guaranteed through Fundamental rights and Directives Principles.

E.g. Article 15 (3), Article 21 A, Article 23, Article 24, Article 39 (e) & (f), Article 45, Article 51 A

• National Policy for Children 1974, National Charter for Children 2004, National Plan of Action for Children 2005 and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights 2006 are some of the government's initiative realizing child rights and protection

• International conventions and instruments like the CRC, Optional Protocols, ILO Convention etc.


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Protective Laws:

• The Juvenile Justice (care and protection) Act, 2000 as amended in 2006

• Indian Penal Code• The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act

2005• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956• The Child Marriage Restraint Act• The Child Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act, 1986• The Information Technology Act, 2000• The Goa Children’s Act


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Government of India and Child Protection• XI th Plan has acknowledged Child Protection

for the first time• The GOI has constituted for the first time a

Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

• Allocated resources for Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the Minsitry for Woman and Child Development.

• ICPS covers CP, JJ Act implementation, Shelters, Creche services, and related issues. However, this scheme is not yet approved.


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Millennium Development Goals and India • The MDGs have gained wide acceptance among

governments across the world and in India. The regular reporting does report progress achieved over the last eight years.

• During this period the Government of India has completed its tenth five year plan and is well into its 11th five year plan.

• The National Common Minimum Program of the government of India spoke of increase in social sector expenditure in an effort to promote overall development and social justice.

• The 11th Five year plan outlines specific monitor able targets with indicators on education, health, gender equality, and sanitation. While these are not identical to the MDGs they would address some of them.


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MDG and India

• We all however know the reality that prevails in our country. India has been witness to rapid growth of the economy in the last fifteen years with wealth creation along side with stark stagnation in many social indicators.

• Every second child in India is malnourished, lesws than one fourth of the rural population has access to toilets, 4 out of ten girls who enroll into school complete eight years of schooling. IMR and MMR rates are still soaring. There are no qualitative indicators for education.


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MDG in India

• 2007 Report on MDG status in India

• Ministry of Statistics, GOI

• Critical issues between reporting methodology and statistics collected in India as against internationally defined MDG criteria.

• NO linkage of CP parameters to MDG status in India.


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MDG status in IndiaSource: 2007 Report of Ministry of Statistics

• MDG statistical needs are conflicting with national statistical needs.

• Country data on MDG is either not available or not of admissible quality.

• A number of recommended indicators have been substituted with alternative indicators.

• Of the 48 indicators for 8 MDG goals 35 are relevant to India.


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Is CP linked to MDGs?Source: Child Protection information sheet , UNICEF

Child protection issues intersect with everyone of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):

• Child labour squanders a nation’s human capital and conflicts with eradicating extreme poverty (MDG 1)

• Armed conflict disrupts efforts to achieve universal primary education (MDG 2)

• Child marriage leads to the removal of girls from school and thus prevents gender equality (MDG 3)

• Children separated from their mothers, particularly if they remain in institutional settings, are at greater risk of early death, which hinders efforts to reduce child mortality (MDG 4)

• Female genital mutilation/ cutting undermines efforts to maternal health (MDG 5)

• Sexual exploitation and abuse hamper efforts to combat HI V infection (MDG 6)

• Environmental disasters make children vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, hence the need for environmental sustainability (MDG 7)

• Protecting children requires close cooperation between different partners, which consolidates the need for a global partnership for development (MDG 8)


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CP and MDG in India

• No attempt to link the two.• No indicators of CP considered in arriving

at MDG status in India.• No budgetary linkages to CP and its likely

impact on MDG.• MDG viewed as primarily a development

indice – CP infrastructure not even perceived as linked to achieving MDG goals


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A child protection lens for MDG• All child protection issues are not addressed by the

MDGs. • No child protection indicators have been considered in

monitoring of the progress of acheievement of MDGs. • Child protection infrastructure is critical to achieving

MDGs. • We do not see adequate investment in child protection.• We do not see adequate linkages between child

protection and the MDGs. • We tend to adopt a segmented approach while

addressing the issues of children and our systems lack the convergence or cross sectoral linkages required to ensure development and protection of children.


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Conclusion

I see today’s meeting, this forum as a unique opportunity for us to come together to apply this child protection lens to the MDGs. Today, presents us with an opportunity to work together on identifying and getting acceptance of child protection indicatiors in monitoring MDG/overall development achievements.

understanding child protection (cp) and cp mechanisms in india

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