Ukhrul: FXB India Suraksha in collaboration with the District Child Protection Unit, Ukhrul organized a stakeholder consultation meeting with law enforcement agencies, service providers and NGOs to discuss about the existing child protection systems and to effectively address human trafficking and child sexual abuse in the district on June 20, 2022 at DRDA Conference Hall, Mini Secretariate, Ukhrul. The meeting was attended by 39 officials from Police, District Child Protection Unit, Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board, Child Care Institutions, NGOs, District Legal Services Authority and Media.
During the meeting Mr. Pabitra Thingbaijam, District Child Protection Officer, Ukhrul presented an overview of the existing mechanisms and systems to address child protection. He discussed about the roles of different stakeholders including Police, CWC, JJB, DCPU, NGOs to ensure protection and safety of children and the services available for them.
The session was followed by a discussion round led by A Wungreiso Shangh, Program Officer, FXBIS where all the stakeholders shared the important issues and challenges faced while handing cases of children. During the discussion Kh. Sunil Kumar, MPS, SDPO, Ukhrul shared about the importance of reporting. Participants suggested about the need for coordination between Police and Judiciary especially in handling the cases under POCSO Act. In Ukhrul, POCSO cases are not tried in Fast Track Court as a result of which the cases are pending in the Court for a longer period of time and a redressal mechanism should be in place to expedite the cases.
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The consultation meeting helped stakeholders to take few decisions one of which was to dispose cases of children in conflict with law which are pending under the Juvenile Justice board for many years. Also, considering such platform to be very useful for sharing of information and taking quick decisions, the stakeholders decided for holding Quarterly co-ordination meeting to share achievements, experiences and discuss challenges and probable solution to create a child friendly district in the state.
FXB India Suraksha is a national level Non-Governmental Organization. In Manipur it has been implementing Project Mukti- an anti-trafficking initiative to address human trafficking and child sexual abuse since 2015, As part of the project, it is working towards building peaceful, strong and just institutions by strengthening their capacities and building partnership in ensuring protection and safety of children in the state. Till date it has been able to build capacities of over 2000 stakeholders. It is also running CHILDLINE 24 X 7 children helpline service in the district since 2019.