Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre launches School campaign to end child trafficking

The last few years have seen an alarming rise in the overall number of crimes against children. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 58,224 cases were reported in the country in 2013. This figure represents an over 50% rise compared to 2012, when 38,172 cases were reported.These are just the cases that have been reported. Thousands of other children still suffer in silence.

Yet, the idea of child protection and that children have the right to remain safe everywhere, regardless of time and place– is still not mainstream, nor is the idea that child protection is everyone’s responsibility.KMWSC aims to encourage and inspire everyday citizens and the general public to take part in child protection, and to spread the message that child protection is a shared responsibility

Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre is continuously fighting against human trafficking through its “Sensitization on Human Trafficking” project. We are involving more and more young and adolescents under this broad umbrella. Extensive training and awareness is conducted at Gram Panchayat level, Block level; at schools and community.

An important part of all of KMWSC child protection work, however, is the participation and leadership of the children themselves. To this end, KMWSC actively support  child-led activities that educate children on how to protect themselves, and empower them to call for action in their communities

KMWSC s program aims to break the communication barrier about the issue between parents and children and encourages children to break the silence about a ‘touching problem’ and openly communicate on the subject with a trusted adult.

Recently Awareness Campaign has been carried out in 5 schools across Block 1 of Canning.

We are aiming at motivating and sensitising the young minds to gain courage against fighting trafficking. They are being encouraged to spread awareness around them, work as peer educators.

Child line and the importance of the four digit number 1098 was explained to them. It was made clear to them that at any need they can resort to the help of this magic number.

The participants discussed several child protection issues in schools, including a child’s physical, emotional, personal, social and sexual safety, teacher-student interaction, discipline, identifying and reporting various forms of child abuse, and how schools can be made inclusive for all children, including those with disabilities.

There is much to be done in the domain of child protection, yet discussions like these initiatives by KMWSC can be considered as a small but vital start – to share experiences, to bring child protection into the collective consciousness and work towards involving schools to lay down minimum standards for child protection.