NCPCR chief: Cooperative Shelters for rehabilitation of street children in Thane

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NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo has proposed setting up cooperative shelters to rehabilitate street children and their families in Maharashtra's Thane district.

According to a release by the District Administration on Friday, the Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Kanoongo emphasized upon the urgency for collective efforts to ensure permanent rehabilitation of street children and their families.

On Wednesday, in a meeting held at the collector's office, Kanoongo presided the need for urgent action and highlighted the necessity of collaborative efforts for sustainable rehabilitation of children and their families.

Kanoongo highlighted the efforts initiated since 2016 for the same cause. He emphasized on Municipal Corporations' and Municipalities' responsibilities to take proactive steps, to enhance finacial capacity and facilitating school enrollment for these street children in the rehabilitation.

Kanoongo proposed the establishment of "Cooperative Shelters" as an effective solution. He has told officials to study the successful Rehabilitation Project in Bhopal for inspiration and replication.

NCPCR, back in June 2022, has launched a 'CiSS application' under Bal Swaraj Portal, to help in the rehabilitation process of Children in Street Situations (CiSS). The CiSS portal is launched for online tracking and digital real-time monitoring mechanism of children in need of care and protection. The CiSS application is used for receiving data of children in street situations from all the states and union territories, tracking their rescue and rehabilitation process. It follows a detailed six stages framework for the rehabilitation of children.

The portal also provides a platform for professionals and organizations to provide any help that they can to children in need.

The Standard Operating Procedure for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situations 2.0 categorizes any child under ‘Children in Street Situation', if the child is living on the streets alone, living on the streets during the day, or living on the streets with the family.

The root cause of the children in streets is found to be migration of families from rural to urban areas in search of a better standard of living.

As per the release by the District Administration, Kanoongo urged officials from Women and Child Development Department to visit and study such projects, study their methods, and replicate them in the Thane district Street Children Rehabilitation Project to ensure positive results.

(Inputs Taken From PTI)