Kelly Kislaya,TNN | Feb 11, 2014, 11.23 AM IST

RANCHI: The social welfare department on Monday said every district will soon have a child protection committee under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme to curb trafficking.

Rajiv Arun Ekka, secretary in the department, issued a notification on this on February 8 that also said each of these panels would be headed by district child protection officers (DCPOs).

"The DCPOs have to be appointed under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme that has been made to implement the provisions under Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act," said Neeraj Sinha, senior technical consultant of Jharkhand State Child Protection Society.

A DCPO will head the 12-member district child protection committee. "The work will be to study data as there is no proper data on trafficked children from Jharkhand. Also they will do a district level assessment of child protection issues that will include existing resources, both government and non-government and how they are being implemented. Based on this assessment the action plan for protection of children will be made," said Sinha.

The district panel will work as an umbrella body under which village-level and block-level anti-trafficking bodies will be formed. The village-level body will have the mukhiya, a teacher, an anganwadi worker, a gram sabha representative and a sahiyya as members. There is a proposal to include child representatives too.

"The committees will help in taking preventive steps against trafficking. The committee will have the record of every child and keep a tab of vulnerable children who are likely to be trafficked. The formation of this committee might take around a month and proper guidelines for the committee will be made within a week," said Sinha.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Anti-trafficking-panel-in-all-Jharkhand-districts-soon/articleshow/30207479.cms