Police & NGOs Should Join Hands To Prevent Child Sexual Abuse: DCP

Bhubaneswar: Police and NGOs should join hands to prevent sexual abuse of children.

Enhancing capacity of NGOs will facilitate reporting of cases pertaining to crimes against children, said Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Kumar Sahoo while addressing a training of trainers programme organised by Youth Council for Development Alternatives (YCDA) in collaboration with Aarambh Foundation (Mumbai) here on Wednesday.

Addressing the event, Uma Subramanian of Aarambh Foundation said, “Odisha has taken a pioneering role in sensitising community. Many civil society members have reached out to more than 18, 000 stakeholders for sensitising communities by conducting different workshops and training programmes on several occasions.”

The state has witnessed various forms of abuse among children, which is happening in institutions, families, schools and communities. In recent days, sexual abuse among children has been discussed regularly in public domain. The government has initiated various steps to address the issue but it has not been addressed properly owing to lack of proper awareness and coordination among different service providers, an organiser said.

The meeting was attended by Arka Laha from Childline Foundation, India, senior programme manager of YCDA Arun Kumar Pradhan and consultant, YCDA Devikarani Sahoo.