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For the past few years India has been implementing a comprehensive and elaborate child protection system. Unfortunately, in practice, these practices fall very short. Terre des hommes (Tdh) campaigns actively in West Bengal in order to strengthen the capacity of public institutions and advocates for an alternative to placing children in institutions.
In the region of West Bengal, many Indian – but also Bangladeshi, Nepalese and Burmese – children have very precarious situations: living in the street, subjected to exploitation or even mistreated.
The Indian authorities have at their disposal a service which enables each child to be taken care of. Each child who receives assistance or who is identified as being in a difficult situation must automatically appear before a committee comprised usually of social workers and people who are knowledgeable about children’s rights matters. This committee should be in a position to deal with each case in the best way possible and provide an adequate response.
Need to do better
Unfortunately, in practice, this system has many flaws: the people appointed to this committee often lack the competencies required. Cases are often dealt with in a haphazard manner, take a long time to be resolved, the responses provided are not always adequate, and children are left for far too long in institutions when they could be reunited with their families.
The care institutions in which the children are placed also lack resources; in particular, staff lack competencies. They have little or no training in dealing with children in difficult situations. This is why our foundation provides training courses in order to raise staff awareness to the Positive Discipline Methods. This approach encourages the child and the tutor to develop social competencies such as cooperation, empathy and respect, as well as to acquire self-discipline, a sense of responsibility and self-sufficiency.
A personalized support
In order to improve the quality of the work by the committees dealing with cases of children receiving assistance, Terre des hommes will soon set up a hotline and organize personalized training courses for the members of such committees. Our foundation will also offer training courses in “case management” to help them systemize decision procedures.
Terre des hommes is also involved in advocacy actions in order to discourage the authorities from systematically referring the children to institutions. Alternative care exists, such as placing the child with a host family or providing financial support for families in need.
