Importance should be given to bringing up children in a family environment, Minister for Women and Child Development Veena George has said.
She was speaking after virtually inaugurating a two-day national workshop on ‘Deinstitutionalisation and family-based alternative care’ organised by the Women and Child Development department in association with UNICEF here on Tuesday.
The Minister said children’s community-based rehabilitation could become a success if all stakeholders worked together for it. “The State aims at being a role model for community-based child protection,” she said.
Programmes such as parenting clinics, Kaval, Kaval Plus, and Vijnanadeepthi implemented by the government for the welfare of children had attracted huge attention, she said.
Soledad Herrero, Chief of Child Protecftion, UNICEF India, said Kerala was in the forefront in the country when it came to formulating and implementing child welfare programmes. Various survey reports had shown that the implications of leaving children in child care institutions were quite grave. Children should grow up in a loving family environment of one’s own or one that they got through adoption or other means. “Society owes it to the children to offer them the best,” she said.
Representatives from Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are taking part in the workshop. UNICEF India Social Policy chief Hyun Hee Ban, Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairperson Manoj Kumar K.V., Women and Child Development department Principal Secretary Rani George and Director Priyanka G. also spoke.
