Mission Vatsalya: Public participation sought for child protection

What is the News?

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has sent its draft guidelines for Mission Vatsalya Scheme to States and Union Territories to seek their suggestions.

What is Mission Vatsalya?

Mission Vatsalya focuses on Child Protection Services and child welfare services.

It is essentially a renamed version of the pre-existing scheme called Child Protection Services.

Objectives of the Mission: 1) To secure a healthy and happy childhood for every child in India, 2) To foster a sensitive, supportive and synchronized ecosystem for the development of children, 3) To assist States/UTs in delivering the mandate of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and 4) To achieve the SDG goals.

Components under the mission: ​​ It will include statutory bodies; service delivery structures; institutional care/services; non-institutional community-based care; emergency outreach services (through Childline or the national helpline 1098 for children); training and capacity building.

Key Features of the Mission

Under the mission, the Government plans to partner with the private sector as well as volunteer groups for its scheme for the protection of vulnerable children such as those abandoned or missing.

For this, a Vatsalya portal will be developed that will allow volunteers to register so that State and District Authorities can engage them in executing various schemes.

What is the concern related to the mission?

The mission plans to integrate the massively successful Childline with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ helpline 112 which provides emergency services for medical emergencies, women’s safety and fire.

This move has been opposed by Child rights activists, as they have said the police should not be the first responder to complaints from children. This will take away the space children have to share and open up.

Source:  This post is based on the article “Public participation sought for child protection” published in The Hindu on 8th April 2022.