Bhubaneswar: The fortnight-long Paree Pain Katha Tiye campaign concluded at Police Bhawan here Tuesday with a valedictory function.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who was the chief guest at the function, however, could not be present as he was preoccupied with some official work.
However, state Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera graced the occasion. In a video message from the Secretariat, Naveen said, “Joining this awareness campaign and protecting our little girl children from sexual abuse is our prime duty and that leads to their safety and security.”
Chief Secretary, Aditya Prasad Padhi, also delivered a video message lauding the efforts of the state police for taking “up a strong step against curbing such a heinous crime.” He said he was optimistic that the campaign could achieve what it had set out for.
Saying that safety of children is not only the duty of the government but of all of us, he added, “Let’s join hands and march together ahead in this noble purpose of saving both the life and dignity of our minor girl children by crushing the culprits with an iron hand.”
Odisha Police DGP, R.P. Sharma, in his video message condemned the growing incidents of sexual abuses on girl children and said, “It is very unfortunate and a serious matter of concern for all of us.”
The DGP urged the people to shed the stigma involved in child sexual abuse cases and register their complaint so that the abusers could be punished with harsher punishments.
Addressing the gathering, union secretary for Women and Child Development, Rakesh Srivastava informed that as per statistics available, a girl child is subjected to sexual abuse every 15 minutes in the country.
Sriviastava said that the 24-hour child line number 1098 and the POCSO e box have been published on the back covers of the latest version of NCERT course books. The Centre has also advised all the state governments to emulate the step and publish the information on the back covers of the text books published by the state education boards. He said that the minor boys along with the girl are also vulnerable to such heinous crimes so the government is going to bring amendments to this effect.
The meeting was graced by Ashok Panda, Prafulla Samal and Ysmin Ali Haq, country head UNICEF India and R Balakrishan development commissioner, Odisha.
The Paree Pain Katha Tiye campaign was a joint venture of state police and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The campaign travelled across all the 30 districts of the state, covering around 40,000 km and had interactive sessions with a crore people on child sexual abuse.
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