DIMAPUR — A one-day workshop to equip police personnel with knowledge that can help them efficiently perform their duty and ensure betterment protection of Child Rights was held at the AIDA training hall on Friday.
Organised by AIDA-Child Friendly Dimapur on the theme ‘child protection,’ the workshop was attended by 30 special juvenile police and women police constables from different police stations.
The main objective of the workshop was to furnish the police personnel with suitable knowledge to effectively exercise their duty, ensure betterment protection of child rights, prevent abuse of minors, and create an amicable environment for children to express their problems openly to the concerned officers, the organisers stated in a press release.
During the workshop, Rev. Fr. Roy George addressed the officials who were led by Dr. Tiamenla Phom, ADCP, Tiasangla, women and juvenile, officer-in-charge, Women Police Cell, and all the special juvenile police personnel from police stations under Dimapur, Chümoukedima and Niuland districts.
He has also briefed on the objective of ANMA Integrated Development Association (AIDA), Child Friendly Dimapur as well as the main intent of organising the workshop. He encouraged the participants to identify collaborative measures towards creating child-friendly cities, to promote child rights, and to prevent the violation and abuse of minors.
Resource person, Sonile Seb, retainer lawyer at the Dimapur District Legal Services Authority (DDLSA), presented information on ‘The Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act 2015 (Juvenile Justice Act).’
She also placed particular emphasis on two distinct categories of children protected under this act, namely children in conflict with the law and children in need of care and protection. She discussed the provisions for institutional and non-institutional care for juveniles, outlined the three types of offences covered by the Juvenile Justice Act of 2005, highlighted the general principles of care and protection for children, and provided insights into the roles of child welfare police officers and special juvenile police units. Furthermore, she elucidated the procedures pertaining to children in conflict with the law and those in need of care and protection and touched upon the topic of victim compensation.
Additionally, she placed a strong emphasis on several key aspects, including the removal of disqualifications, the destruction of records (as outlined in Section 24, Clause 2 of the Act), addressing runaway children in conflict with the law, and the role of the Child Welfare Committee. She provided a briefing on the procedures concerning children in need of care and protection, focusing on rehabilitation and social reintegration, the registration of institutions, the Central Adoption Resource Agency, and various offences against children.
She encouraged police officials to refer to the Juvenile Justice Act, Model Rule of 2007 for guidance in following the prescribed rules and guidelines, while also promoting a more child-friendly approach when handling cases involving children. Following this presentation, an open discussion was initiated, during which police officials posed queries related to the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 to the resource person, the press release stated.
Earlier, Sr. Jisha Joseph, Children Mobilisation Officer, Child Friendly Dimapur highlighted the concept as well as the vision of AIDA-Child Friendly Dimapur. Garrol Lotha, Project Coordinator, Child Friendly Dimapur initiated an interactive session and discussion on the measures to work collaboratively towards creating child-friendly cities in Dimapur and Chümoukedima.
Gaisanglung, civil society mobilisation officer moderated the workshop, as per the release.
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