Bhubaneswar: The state government would be launching the second phase of Paree Pain Kathatie, a statewide awareness campaign against child sexual abuse, and would focus on carrying forward the campaign through SHG members at village level.
However, the details of the programme have not been finalised yet, an official said here Thursday.
Chairing a high-level meeting in presence of DGP RP Sharma, Chief Secretary AP Padhi directed the officials to prepare the convergent action plan for integrated operation at various levels during Phase-II. “The campaign will be launched for creating a safe and protective environment for the children of age 0-18 years”, Padhi said.
IG of Police Asit Kumar Panigrahi said that the second phase would incorporate SHG members where each member would vow that no girl below 18 years of age would be given in marriage or brought in as daughter-in-law in her family. She (SHG member) would bring two of her neighbouring families under the same vow within a year. The campaign aims at creating protective environment for around 1.5 crore of children in the age group of 0-18.
The government would conduct orientation camps for field level officers of line departments including Women & Child development, panchayati raj, Labour & ESI and School & Mass Education about the objectives and methods of operation of the campaign.
It was decided in the meeting that convergent action plan would be prepared involving different departments, agencies and institutions to create awareness on child rights, protection, education, prohibition of child labour, rehabilitation of vulnerable children, integrated development of the child, prevention of child marriage and implementation of Juvenile Justice Act.
While a state level committee headed by the Chief Secretary will monitor the programme, an advisory committee will be formed under the chairmanship of DGP. District level panel headed by Collector will work for carrying forward the campaign. All related departments have been asked to designate a senior level officer as the nodal officer to the advisory committee.
The first phase of the campaign was launched in May and continued till June this year. It is an initiative by state police launched in technical partnership with Unicef.
During the first phase, 15 Paree Express went around all 30 districts of the state for 15 days. Paree Express covered 44,787 km and conducted around 1,400 community outreach programmes in different parts of the state. Around 1.2 million people participated in the campaign through direct community outreach programmes and around 1.3 million people were connected through social media outreach.
