In 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.
About Mission Vatsalya-
- Approved by the Union Cabinet in January 2022, Mission Vatsalya is one of the new triad of schemes along with Mission Shakti, and Poshan 2.0, that aims at securing a healthy and happy childhood for every child.
- The objective of Mission Vatsalya is to secure a healthy and happy childhood for every child in India; foster a sensitive, supportive and synchronized ecosystem for development of children; assist States/UTs in delivering the mandate of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015; achieve the SDG goals.
- This mission is essentially rechristening a pre-existing scheme called Child Protection Services, and also includes child welfare services.
- Components under Mission Vatsalya include-
- Statutory bodies.
- Service delivery structures.
- Institutional care/services.
- Non-institutional community-based care.
- Emergency outreach services.
- Training and capacity building.
- ChildLine (1098), the 24-hour toll free helpline for children in distress, will be manned by the Home Affairs Ministry under Mission Vatsalya.
- As per the draft guidelines, to encourage public participation, develop synergy in efforts and utilize the resources available for success of the mission, the civil society, people’s groups and various volunteering organizations can be encouraged to participate under Mission Vatsalya in a systematic and planned manner.
- These could include organizations under government initiatives such as Bharat Scout and Guide, NSS Volunteers, Nehru Yuva Kendras and more NGOs and Self-Help Groups could be identified.
- The Ministry has also proposed a Vatsalya portal that will allow volunteers to register so that State and District Authorities can engage them for executing various schemes.
- Under the scheme the government also plans to “integrate” the massively successful Childline with Ministry of Home Affairs’ helpline 112 which provides emergency services for medical emergencies, women’s safety and fire – a move that has child rights activists very worried.
ChildLine (1098)-
- Childline is an independent trust and gets funding from the Ministry of Women and Child Development for operating the helpline.
- CHILDLINE India Foundation (CIF) is the agency/body responsible for establishing the CHILDLINE service across the country.
- It first started as a field action project of the Department of Family and Child Welfare, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, in June 1996.
- It works for the protection of rights of all children aged from 0 to 18.
- It has functioned as a public-private partnership between the government and civil society organizations to provide a first-responder safety net, and kick start the process of rescue and rehabilitation of children.
Source: The Hindu
