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Friday, 28 June 2013

Varanasi police to act as guardians for mentally challenged kids

The Varanasi police will soon be in an Avatar of guardians for the mentally challenged children of the district.

It sounds surprising but the Varanasi police are all set to take this responsibility as a part of community policing. It will be formally launched by the ADG (law and order) Arun Kumar on Saturday.

This initiative is a brainchild of a deputy SP and circle officer Sadar, Rahul Kumar, who got this idea during his past posting in Noida where several parents of mentally challenged children met him with the worries about future of their wards.

After it he studied the problem and also worked with some NGOs on this issue. But when he got posting in rural belt here he noticed that many of those children are ill-treated or even killed to end their claim on property. The trafficking of these children and killing for other reasons also takes place for monetary reasons but most of these cases remain unreported.

After it he conducted survey in Rohania, Jansa and Lohta police station area of his circle that resulted in detection of 300 mentally disabled children. However, the records of social welfare department shows only 200 such children in the entire district.

Not only this but before meeting the SSP AK Mishra to give a proposal for launching this programme as a part of community policing he also sought help of Dr Tulsi of Deva International Society for Child Care, who is also one of the directors Association for Rehabilitation under National Trust Initiative of Marketing (ARUNIM national trust) of ministry of disability affairs of government of India.

When Rahul and Dr Tulsi met the SSP with this proposal he also agreed for this initiative. They said that this programme is aimed at searching each and every mentally disabled child, ensuring availability of certificates of ailment for each mentally retarded child from CMO, benefits of the schemes of ministry of disability affairs, ARUNIM national trust, their training and counseling with the help of NGOs.

As per the guidelines of ministry the district magistrate becomes the legal guardian of such child after identification but cent percent identification of those children is proving a difficult task in existing system. To make the programme effective the SSP decided that each beat constable will adopt two of the mentally disabled child. These cops will check the condition of beneficiaries and also progress in their health and behaviour on weekly basis. The men in khaki are hoping that their initiative will ensure the availability of benefits of government schemes for these children apart from their safety.


Source : TOI , 27th June 2013

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