Moving safety of children issues onto the policy agenda and appropriately responding to the child protection needs at the city, state and national level require working hand in hand with the government. Governments can play a huge role in being the ambassadors of the child protection movement and enabling that prevention efforts reach every child and adult in this country. Arpan is closely working the government departments for delivering direct services, training and capacity building of duty bearers and towards Policy Advocacy. Some of Arpan’s key allies are:
- Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
- Department of Women and Child Development (WCD),
- Department of School Education and Literacy,
- National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT),
- Maharashtra State Council of Education, Research and Training (MSCERT),
- Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE),
- National Council for Protection of Children’s Rights (NCPCR)
Collaboration for Direct Services
Arpan is partnering with the Government Departments for delivering Direct Services:
Personal Safety Education – Arpan’s flagship programme has been conducted with 41 Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) schools and 2 Central Government Schools.
Some of our key training conducted with duty bearers through government partners:
- Training with MSCERT – Arpan conducted training sessions for State-level master trainers on Understanding CSA and conducting Personal Safety Education.
- Training at Chandrapur District – Arpan in partnership with Tata Trust is working on a multi-phased strategy working with various stakeholders to address a multifaceted problem like CSA in Chandrapur. This includes:
- Training of Teachers from over 50 schools of Pomburna block so that they can deliver age-appropriate personal safety information to children and appropriately respond to and support children who have gone through sexual abuse
- Training of Counselors to enable them to deal with cases of Child Sexual Abuse
- Training of Police Personnel with an aim to provide relevant knowledge and skills to address the issue of CSA.
- WCD, Konkan region – Arpan has conducted training sessions for Superintendents and Caretakers across all institutional homes.
- Training for Municipal Corporation, Kolhapur – Arpan has conducted training for teachers and Master Trainers from 59 municipal schools in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Arpan has also assisted the administration in creating an implementation and monitoring plan to ensure that Personal Safety Education is effectively conducted across all schools.
- MCGM, Special Education Department – Arpan has conducted a training for Special Educators from 17 schools in the MCGM, Special Education Department. These teachers have adapted the Personal Safety Programme to their environments and are independently conducting the programme with parents and children.
- Police Department, Mumbai – Training on Understanding CSA and Personal Safety Education was conducted for officials from Crime Against Women’s Cell, Mumbai Police. The purpose of the training was to enable officials to conduct awareness sessions at schools. Arpan has also been conducting annual awareness Sessions for newly recruited cadets.
- Training for Government Counselors, WCD Haryana and
- Training for Teachers, District Jhajhad, Haryana
The advocacy efforts with the government especially focus on policy-level change in order to create an environment which is protective of children from sexual abuse. Some of the key policy advocacy has been directed at:
- Think Tank for School Curriculum: Since January 2018, Arpan has been part of a Life Skills think-tank initiated by MHRD, working closely with NCERT and CBSE towards creating a content framework for a curriculum on Life skills. Arpan has worked closely on the module on ‘Safety and Security’ with NCERT on the curriculum for Health and Wellness of school going adolescents under the aegis of the school health programme of Ayushman Bharat.
- Protocol/Guidelines for Ensuring Safety of Children in Schools: CBSE had invited Arpan to review their Protocol/Guidelines for Ensuring Safety of Children in Schools developed by CBSE. While the document developed by CBSE is very well thought out in laying down the macro-framework for school safety, we have worked on making it more robust by drawing from the other existing national and international Child Protection Policies.
- Engagement with NCPCR – Arpan has actively participated in consultations initiated by NCPCR for a media campaign on prevention.