The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) has called for the strengthening of a monitoring mechanism to ensure the safety of children in the tea gardens of the state.

This was announced on Friday by Sunita Changkakati, the chairperson of the commission, in a state coordination meeting on protection of children in the tea gardens of Assam.

The meeting was organised by Save the Children, an NGO for children in collaboration with the CID here.

“To ensure the rights of children in tea gardens, we need to have a holistic approach that includes addressing the substance abuse of the parents. Educational and health aspects of children too need to be taken care of. Raising awareness of the community, stakeholders and children is extremely crucial,” Changkakati said.

She reiterated that strengthening of monitoring mechanism would ensure child safety in their community and the key to reach the goal is through convergence at all levels.

Sajad Zaman Hazarika, the labour commissioner, Assam, said one cannot work in silos, rather a convergent strategy has to be spearheaded to ensure results.

“The existing mechanisms like a district-level task force need to be strengthened to ensure that every stakeholder is accountable towards ensuring the rights of children in the state. Monitoring mechanisms are also needed and it is a joint responsibility of the Centre and the state government. Tea gardens are especial aspects for the Assam government,” Hazarika said.

Geentanjali Doley, the additional superintendent of police, CID, Assam said reporting of cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 has increased over the years since 2016-2018.

“There is an interlink between child trafficking, child marriage and sexual abuse and that CID has also taken initiative to include investigation of child sexual abuse while investigating child trafficking cases,” Doley said.

There are altogether 1,381 Pocso Act cases, 238 human trafficking and 2,120 missing cases while 1,461 recovered cases have been reported in Assam, according to the National Crime Records Bureau 2018 data.

Surendra Kumar, the inspector-general of police, (CID) Assam, said convergence is critical and the department already has various systems in place but these systems need to be further strengthened with support from key stakeholders in the state.

“There are child-protection committees at the district, block and village levels but a state-level child protection committee needs to be present to spearhead the coordination of all these committees. Convergence is prescribed in the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). It also needs to be included in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. A district-level task force needs to be strengthened under CALPRA. Prosecution is not the end, there should be justice for the survivors. SC&ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) (1989) has to be applied during prosecution,” Kumar said.