It is comforting to believe that child abuse, drug trouble and early marriage belong to bigger towns and other people’s families. On Friday, a gathering at Balemu village in West Kameng district heard that this comfort is misplaced.
The Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) took its sensitisation programme to the village, and it refused to stick to one theme. Speaker after speaker picked up a different piece of the same puzzle: the law, the classroom, the clinic, the phone in a teenager’s hand.
One of the sharper messages came from commission member Honluk Lukham. Because so many child abuse cases have been reported in the state, he said, Arunachal’s reputation is on the line. He also covered the right to education, bullying in schools and the part teachers and caregivers must play. That last part matters. A child who is bullied at school and brushed off at home has very few places left to turn.
Fellow commission member Miti Libang stressed the overall wellbeing of children and pushed for a child-friendly environment at home, in school and in public places. Her ask sounded simple and was anything but. Everyone present, she said, should take full responsibility for protecting children’s rights.
West Kameng’s Women and Child Development Deputy Director, RT Deru, named the problems the district is facing (drugs, child labour, early marriage and more) and described what his department is doing about them. Rinchin Megegee of the District Child Protection Unit walked through the laws on juveniles and child labour and listed the district’s child protection machinery: the Juvenile Justice Board, the Child Welfare Committee and the unit itself. Child Welfare Committee member Ajit Sasusow explained the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in detail.
Kenju Pakam, a clinical psychologist at Bomdila general hospital, spoke about children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, along with drug and substance abuse. Her request to parents was to watch for early signs of mental health problems rather than wait for a crisis, and she shared helpline numbers for such cases. It is the kind of advice that sounds obvious until you are the tired parent at the end of a long day.
Balemu Police Station’s officer-in-charge, Leiki Norbu, took on the newest worry on the list: digital child protection, online safety and gaming addiction. Balemu Assistant Commissioner Dr Hage Atho added that the district administration is proactive in fighting the drug menace in the region.
Not everything on the day was a warning, though. Kalaktang Child Development Project Officer DK Thungon used the occasion to launch ‘Poshan Connect’, a nutrition exchange initiative of the Kalaktang ICDS project. The idea is charmingly simple. People give and receive food, including homegrown fruits and vegetables. Field functionaries will carry it out during Poshan Maah, the national nutrition month. It sounds less like policy and more like neighbours, which, in a village, may be exactly why it could work.
Heads of departments from the Balemu circle, panchayat members and gaon buras were joined by government and private school teachers, BRO officials, ASHAs, anganwadi workers, supervisors and gramsevikas. Many of them see children day in, day out.
Boards, acts and helplines can only do so much. None of them can sit at a village dinner table and notice that a child has gone quiet. That job belongs to the adults who showed up in Balemu on Friday, and to every grown-up in Arunachal who wasn’t in the room but should have been.
