Sex tourism & child pornography major threat to children: Rajnath

New Delhi, May 11: Terming trafficking a major challenge, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said sex tourism and child pornography among others have emerged as the major threats to children.

Addressing the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) here, Singh said protection of children is everyone's responsibility and hence all must work in convergence with as many stake holders as possible including parents, teachers, children and community.

"Trafficking is another major challenge for all of us. With increasing access to information technology and changing nature of our globalised economy; new threats for children are emerging - sex tourism, child pornography, online threats to children among others," he said.

The Home Minister said at the same time, large number of children are adversely affected due to rapid climate change, disasters and conflict.

"We are increasingly realizing that we cannot commit ourselves to protecting children without providing an overarching social protection network to them and their families.

The biggest challenge is to identify and track children and their families who are vulnerable and reach out to them," he said.

Singh said in India, the government is trying to ensure a protective environment for children by bringing all citizens, including children under the purview of social security by linking them with AADHAAR – Unique Identification number which will empower them to access to their entitlements directly without any hindrance.

"We have set up a National Portal –the Track Child which not only has data on 'missing' children but it also has live database to monitor the progress of the 'found' children who are availing various services in different Child Care Institutions," he said.

PTI