Govt to bring legislation to protect children from abuse:Renuka

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) The Governemnt is planning to bring a legislation to control the menace of child abuse which is high in the country, Parliament was informed today.

Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury admitted in a written reply that child abuse was high in the country. However, the available National Crime Records Bureau data did not suggest any rising trend, she clarified.

She said though no scheme specifically for child security and education was being run by the government, the Ministry was implementing an 'Integrated Programme for Street Children and Scheme for Welfare' for working children in need of care, protection and rehabilitation. The programme includes education as one of the components.

In another reply, she said the Ministry had formulated a new centrally- sponsored scheme namely 'Integrated Child Protection Scheme' for implementation during the eleventh plan period under which there was a provision for setting up of state Adoption Resource Agency in every state/union territory for promoting in- country adoption and regulating inter-country adoption and to coordinate and monitor in-country adoptions.

Denying that India's adoption scene has been very dismal in the past, she said the government had no proposal to develop a software whcih would make adoptee parents fill annual feedback form.

She said recognised adoption agencies were being promoted to discourage illegal adoption activities by nursing homes, hospitals and unrecognised adoption agencies.

UNI