Chandigarh to develop special network to curb child abuse

Chandigarh, Apr 27 (UNI) The City Beautiful aims to be a haven for children with a strong and responsive network, supported with legal, administrative and social measures, to deal stringently with any form of child abuse.

A meeting Chaired by the Punjab Governor and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh, Gen. (Retd.) S.F. Rodrigues today, resolved to plan and create effective systems for dealing with child abuse cases and hold follow up meeting in 10 days to finalize the Action Plan.

General Rodrigues, in his opening remarks, called for creating an Umbrella organization of all the social groups engaged in Child Welfare, with chapters assigned specific tasks to tackle different issues relating to problems of child abuse, child labour and their exploitation in different ways in the Society.

He said that Chandigarh Administration has already started the process of setting up three separate homes, one for crippled children with 1000 capacity, second for 1000 mentally retarded children and the third for 900 street children equipped with support structure for meeting their educational and rehabilitation needs. He asked the members of the NGOs to come forward to help these endeavours.

General Rodrigues asked the police department to evolve a responsive system with a effective child helpline to immediately give protection to the victims of child abuse incidents.

UNI