An awareness programme-cum-one day open house discussion on Child Protection Mechanism organized by the District Child Protection Units was held at the main headquarters of all the eleven districts of Nagaland from May 17 to 27. The participants included stakeholders from district administration, various community bodies, including village council chairmen, members, ward leaders, tribal bodies, Naga Hohos, church representatives, women leaders, student community, representatives from various village level Child Protection Committees and ward/colony level Child Protection Committees, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, Special Juvenile Police Units, CHILDLINE 1098 and various NGOs etc.
The main objective of the programme was to bring awareness to the public about the various delivery structures that were under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), educating the community on the various child protection mechanisms and encouraging them to participate and safeguard their community children against various vulnerabilities. The programme was aimed to seek measures for reduction of such cases by deliberating in the open house discussion.
During the open house discussion various issues on children such as child labour, child abuse, adoption, customary practices, children in conflict with law, were deliberated, with child labour as one of the key issues that was faced by all the districts. A brief overview of Women helpline 181 and their services provided to women was also presented in the programme.
Overall the programme was successful with active participation from the participants with positive response of building a strong Community Based Child Protection Committee to work for their children.