One day workshop on the theme, “Child Protection” was organised for police by the ANMA Integrated Development Association (AIDA)-Child Friendly Dimapur (CFD) on October 27 at AIDA Training Hall Dimapur. A press release by AIDA-CFD stated that the main objective of organising the workshop was to furnish the police personnel with suitable knowledge to effectively exercise their duty, ensure betterment protection of Child Rights and prevent abuse of minors, and to create amicable environment for children to express their problems openly to the concerned officers as often they have nobody else (especially in case of child sexual abuse by persons the child trust the most).
In his address, Rev. Fr. Roy George briefed the participants on the objective of AIDA-CFD as well as the main intend of organizing the workshop. He then encouraged the participants to identify collaborative measures to promote child rights and prevent violation and abuse to minor towards creating child friendly cities.
Resource person, retainer lawyer, Dimapur District Legal Services Authority (DDLSA), Sonile Seb shared on “The Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of children Act 2015 (Juvenile Justice Act)”.
She also emphasized on two categories of children who are protected under the Juvenile Justice (Children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection); Institutional care and non-Institutional care provided for the Juveniles; three types of offences specified under Juvenile Justice Act 2005; general principles of Care and Protection for the children; Child Welfare Police Officer and Special Juvenile Police Units; procedure in relation to children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, and victim compensation.
Seb also emphasized on the removal of disqualification, destruction of records (Section 24 Clause 2 of the Act), runaway child in conflict with laws and Child Welfare Committee.
The resource person briefed the participants on the procedure in relation to children in need of care and protection; rehabilitation and social reintegration, registration of Institutions; Central Adoption Resource Agency, and other offences against children.
She suggested the police officials to refer to the Juvenile Justice Act, Model rule 2007 rules to follow the rules and guidelines as stated in the model rule as well as to have more child friendly approach while dealing with child related cases. Later, an open discussion was initiated where queries related to JJ Act 2015 was put forward by the police officials to the resource person.
Earlier, CFD children mobilization officer, Sr. Jisha Joseph also highlighted on the concept as well as the vision of AIDA-CFD. The interactive session and discussion on the measures to work collaboratively towards creating child friendly cities in Dimapur and Chümoukedima was initiated by CFD project coordinator, Garrol Lotha while civil society mobilization officer, Gaisanglung moderated the workshop.