Ranchi: Children deprived of their basic rights in the state will have a local guardian—the Jharkhand State Child Protection Commission.

Moved by the repeated reminders from the Centre, the Jharkhand government has completed the formalities for setting up the state level Child Protection Commission. By doing so, Jharkhand will become the ninth state to have a state-level commission to ensure implementation of the child rights Act.

States like Rajsthan, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Goa, Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra already have constituted the commission in conformity to the instructions issued by the National Child Protection Commission in 2007.

The commission intends to bat for the basic rights of children below 18 years. Besides, it will also monitor the programmes conducted by different organisations and government agencies to rehabilitate child labourers and ensure vocational training to them.

A senior officer of the Social Welfare Department said that rules for the upcoming commission have been sent to the Law department for vetting. Once the rules are cleared by the Law Department, necessary steps will be taken to constitute the commission within a month.

As per the proposed rules, any apolitical person will be appointed as the Chairman of the commission. However, the person should be acquainted with the provisions of the child rights and have working experience in the field. An officer of the administrative service cadre will be nominated as the Member Secretary of the body, which will have four to five members.

A vigilance committee will also be formed to scrutinise working of the non-governmental organisations and the government agencies, which have been tasked to ensure the rights to education and child rights.

According to the government’s estimation, more than 4 lakh children are still working as child labourers in the State. Apart from domestic help, they are employed in different natures of hazardous work.

Constitution of the state-level commission in Jharkhand also assumes significance because the Centre has allocated Rs 4057.70 crore for the nationwide campaign to eradicate child labourers during the 11th Five year plan.

Of the total, Rs 422.50 crore has been earmarked for imparting vocational training to the children in the age-group of 15-18, who are working as child labourers.

Officials said that the formation of the state-level commission would help them in big way in eradicating the child labourers and working out effective plans to rehabilitate them with the financial help from the Centre.
—iGovernment Bureau