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Heads of concerned depts should be present during inspections & meetings: SCPCR chief at meeting held on govt shelter homes
SCPCR chairman Devendra Sharma, along with his team, inspected the accommodation, food, and sanitary conditions of the government girls’ and boys’ shelters.
LUCKNOW The chairman of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) has expressed displeasure at the poor attendance of representatives from stakeholder departments concerning women and children’s shelters during inspections and regulatory meetings. The development comes after a series of inspections at government shelter homes last week.
SCPCR chairman Devendra Sharma, along with his team, inspected the accommodation, food, and sanitary conditions of the government girls’ and boys’ shelters, the juvenile observation home for boys, and the One-Stop Centre for victims of domestic violence and gendered abuse. The feedback collected from the inmates on these grounds was found to be satisfactory.
However, the gathering of representatives from all the governmental bodies and agencies concerned with women and children’s development in the state was scanty and Sharma expressed grave concerns regarding the same. At a meeting on Monday, he said that henceforth, the heads of these government bodies will not be allowed to send their representatives to attend these decision-making meetings and that their physical presence will be mandatory.
Several suggestions were also made at these inspections to the staffers of the various establishments. For instance, the superintendent of the girls’ shelter home at Para was asked to ensure proper education and training of the girls, and more importantly, the staff was directed to do their best to relocate the children back with their families through counselling.
The step-by-step counselling system at the One-Stop Centre, run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, was also examined during this inspection, and the authorities decided that a workshop would be conducted for the in-house counsellors by an experienced psychologist, to help the workers better handle the survivors’ issues. Attendance registers at each of these establishments were also checked to monitor the regularity and availability of staffers as well.
City magistrates, additional commissioner of police (Crime), additional chief medical officer, Lucknow, district probation officer, social welfare officer, information officer, AHTU (Anti-Human Trafficking Unit) officials, labour department representative, child welfare committee, and others were present at this meeting.
