It was a mid February afternoon and I was sitting in the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) meeting of our district to enquire about the newly admitted rescued children that are in need of care and protection. When a frightened and shy 8-year-old Anubhav (name changed) from one of the northeastern states of India was presented, I put my arm around him and began chatting in Hindi. He was pleasantly surprised.
I gathered that he wants to go home and when asked for any contact information, surprisingly he remembered a mobile number of one of his relatives. I dialed the number and was able to talk to a gentleman who recognized the boy. I requested that the message be conveyed to the boy’s family and to get in touch with the CWC. In the next three hours, I got a call from the boy’s father and was at our CWC in few days. Boy was reunited with the father in about 10 or more days.
I remembered another boy from the North that was older but couldn’t give any kind of credible contact information. It took significantly longer with much less success and we sent him to the nearest CWC in his home state with an escort for further resolution.
These two cases are just two contrasting examples to discuss about the strategies to protect our children. I know children that are as young as four years old have the capability to remember significant amount of credible contact information. We must teach our children as much contact information as we possibly can such as names of parents, name of the town, home address, and above all phone number preferably mobile number. Make your teaching ‘child friendly’ by introducing play into it and frequently review the learnt information that it is not forgotten.
Juvenile & Justice Act of India requires that every district in India has a functioning CWC. At CWC, although many children express the desire to go home, it’s work gets harder when the available information is limited and it makes the family’s heartache of waiting that much longer. As 60% of Indian children are reported to be subject to abuse of some kind, it is paramount that we teach our children “Tools Of Protection”.
It’s a joyous occasion to reunite a child with a family. Let’s play our role to expedite to empower the children of India.
Ruby
2 comments:
Its always a good idea to teach our kids the telephone numbers. I did that by setting it to a simple tune...
Its also a good idea to teach the our names, else they will say only Pappa or Mama.. which maynot help in a crisis situation... Teach them our names and surnames..
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