Missing Children:Who Cares?
of Human Resource Development (Department of Education), the Ministry of Social Justice and Law, etc. These ministries have to coordinate with their counterparts at the State level. All these Ministries and Departments should tie up with representatives of national and state level Civil Society Organizations to focus on health, education, protection, social inclusion, welfare and development, etc. of children and their families to ensure the child’s safety at home. Coordination by NCAG and/or NCPCR The assessments of various interventions made by multiple bodies show that there is a lacuna in coordination of execution. There is an urgent need for the establishment of a National Coordination and Action Group (NCAG), which would facilitate inter-ministerial/ multi-sectoral interventions. However, instead of adding yet another group and its offices, could that additional responsibility and resources be shared by NCPCR and SCPCR? The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), being the nodal ministry for children, should take a call on that and find an appropriate solution. Either the NCAG or the NCPCR, should be given independent authority to determine a way forward for inter-ministerial interventions. Its regular coordination meetings and constructive directives can contribute to ensure that all service providers, from local to national level, understand the special problems of children living in difficult circumstances; it must identify specific roles and responsibilities for relevant ministries to address the various issues of children; it must lay down procedures to function as a united system in rectification and promotion of child rights in India. The NCAG/ NCPCR should develop a national action plan/ strategy to prevent and respond to child rights violations and incorporate it in the impending National Plan of Action for Children. It should set up a national campaign on Child Safety Net to enhance coordination between the ministries as well as the departments. The campaign for Child Safety Net should address a comprehensive programme to strengthen families and improve the essential conditions of the family, where a child will be safe and secure. The various ministries have to look into this aspect of family wellbeing while planning the programmes to the people at the fringe of the society. Every ministry and department connected with children is to be made accountable. Let us carry the campaign for a child safety net to the portals of the government offices. No one who is not fully part of the Child Safety Net, through agreement, through external signs of commitment and so on should be allowed to work in the ministry/ department. Could we state that in the amendment of the National Policy for Children and the imminent National Plan of Action for Children? Could we pledge our children that we are serious about our commitment to them? 17.1 National Task Force against Trafficked/Missed Children in India The NCAG/ NCPCR should have a distinct National Task Force (NTF) comprising government ministries and non-governmental organizations to promote a multi-disciplinary approach towards child safety net to eliminate the trafficking of women and children. The NTF should have its out stretched wings in State (STF) and District (DTF) as part of State and District Child Protection Society/ Units respectively. Based on the directions of NCAG/ NCPCR, the NTF could create a Model Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) to ensure coordination of all service providers working with children and especially the victims of trafficking/ missing children and disseminate to STF for State level adoption.
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