TAWANG, Jul 23: The Tawang District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) with support from the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) organized awareness programmes on the POCSO Act, 2012, and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, at various schools of the district on Monday.
The programmes were organized through the three CDPOs of the district, in Tawang, Jang, and Lumla, covering 18 government schools. The students were sensitized to various provisions under the Juvenile Justice Act and the POCSO Act which safeguard and protect their rights.
The CDPOs also apprised the students of the role of the DCPU and its three support services – the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), and the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) – in responding to and preventing child abuse. Representatives from the DLSA highlighted the legal safeguards, counselling facilities, etc, under the acts.
Around 1200 students, along with teachers, benefited from the programmes.
Such sensitization programmes will be conducted at all other schools of the district – both government and private – till the end of the current month.
Similar awareness programmes are also being conducted at various schools in Yachuli and Ziro-I circles of Lower Subansiri district to sensitize the children and the teachers to the Juvenile Justice Act and the POCSO Act.
The awareness programmes, which began on 20 July, are being conducted by the district administration, involving the police, the DLSA, the education department and the DCPU, the administration informed in a press release.
DCPU nodal officer C Tangjang made the school children and teachers aware of DCPU, the JJB, the CWC and the SJPU, besides children’s homes and observation homes, and their role in protecting children’s rights.
She informed that 11 children engaged as labourers were rescued by the Ziro CWC in the last few years.
SI RN Singh, legal practitioner Bamin Apa and the DCPU probation officer informed the students about various aspects of child protection systems.
The children interacted keenly with the resource persons and welcomed the proposal for designation of a nodal teacher in all the schools to help children in need.
Around 700 children from four schools under Ziro circle have so far been sensitized. (With inputs from DIPRO)
