SUBMISSION BY CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN GOA

Name of Organisation: Children's Rights in Goa (CRG)
Contact persons: Nishtha Desai (Director), Sushma Pawar (Training Coordinator)
Address: H No.754/1 (11), 2nd Floor, 'Christina Apartments', Alto-Porvorim, Bardez,  
   Goa – 403521, INDIA
Mobile: (+91) 9822983336
E-mail: crg.goa@gmail.com
Please see Response of Children's Rights in Goa (CRG)  in blue.
Care and recovery of child victims - Call for submissions
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children/Pages/CareAndRecovery.aspx 

The Special Rapporteur will study assistance, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for child victims of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation, with the aim of proposing comprehensive care and recovery systems.

The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Maud de Boer Buquicchio, is currently preparing a study to be presented at the 70th session of the General Assembly, in October 2015, on care and recovery of children victim of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation.

Please only respond to the questions which are relevant to our context.
1. Provide information on guidelines and protocols that govern the establishment and management of care and recovery services provided by your organization for child victims of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation.
•	Any case of child sexual exploitation that has been reported to the organization is taken seriously and steps are taken first to ensure the safety of the child victim. 
•	If the child is at risk necessary steps taken to ensure the safety of the child either by producing the child before the Child Welfare Committee and assisting in further rehabilitation of the child like boarding facility if the child needs to be relocated from the home based on the situation or identifying relatives who can protect the child. 
•	Reporting to the relevant authority as per law if there is any case of sexual exploitation 
•	Our organization may also assist the police in the course of investigation of the case by providing psycho-social support to the victim from the time the statement is recorded at the police station to the time that the case is heard at the Children’s Court. 
•	Individual counselling provided to the child victim in helping to deal with the traumatic experience of being abused 
•	Parents are also provided with counselling and support. 

2. Based on your experience, what elements are necessary for a comprehensive and rights-based care and recovery system of child victims of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation?
•	Need for proper mechanisms to provide victims with psycho-social and legal support throughout the investigation i.e. from the time the statement is recorded till the hearing in the court. 
•	Counselling services for victims of abuse . 
•	Support system for the parents and family of the victim. 

3. Provide examples of good practices and successful initiatives of assistance and rehabilitation programmes which facilitate the recovery and reintegration of child victims of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation.

•	CRG has been assisting victims of abuse and those in vulnerable situations in numerous cases by providing psycho-social support to victims at different stages in the process of investigation. 
•	CRG has also been providing its counselling services to these children and has been networking with different shelter homes for assistance to the victims. 
•	Networking with different authorities like the police, Child Welfare Committees, Children’s Court, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and with different NGOs to ensure the best interest of the child. 
•	CRG has developed child friendly police protocols while dealing with cases of children. These have been printed and will be made available to every police station. 
•	CRG has also been instrumental in forming the Pro Child Network, a network of NGOs that takes up different issues of children. One of its successes is that that after the representation made by the network the Children’s Court which was sitting only once a week started sittings on a daily basis from 8 September 2014.

4. Describe the challenges that your organization has identified in the establishment and management of assistance and rehabilitation programmes for child victims of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation.
•	A major challenge is once the case has been registered there is always a delay in charge sheeting the case, leaving the victims apprehensive about the status of their cases. 
•	Due to the pendency of cases at Children’s Court, the case comes up for hearing in the court after many years. The victim child is forced to live with trauma due to which the child has difficulty in getting on with life. 
•	Sometimes improper handling of the case at the police station may lead to victims turning hostile and changing their statements. 

5. How do you ensure that the views and needs of children are duly taken into account in the design and provision of care and recovery services?

When there is a case of abuse that has taken place, the individual care plan for the child is always made based on the needs of the child after taking into account the wishes and desires of the child and keeping in mind the best interest of the child. Additionally, CRG ensures recognition of views and needs of children through an intensive child participation program:
1.	FLiP Clubs at the FLiP Centres run by CRG in the north coastal belt of Goa namely Baga, Calangute and Candolim: The FLiP Club is a platform where nominated representatives of children in FLiP Centres meet, express their views and grievances and report any type of abuse. These meetings are held on a regular basis around twice a month as per the convenience of the FLiP members. Strategically, the members report about the cases to their Child Rights Facilitators who take necessary action such as filing a police complaint etc. The children’s role is not limited to being informers. They also suggest steps that can be taken to assist the child’s rehabilitation.  
2.	Rights-based awareness sessions in formal schools: CRG reaches out to nearly 30 formal schools every year with the permission of the Directorate of Education to conduct sessions for students of Class VII on child rights & responsibilities and Class VIII on Village Child Committees. These sessions are interactive. The discussion with the students helps CRG in understanding the children’s mindset, maturity, concerns, perspective and opinions with regard to child rights and child abuse. This helps in designing programmes to prevent children from becoming victims.
3.	Bal Sabha & Bal Panchayat as an integral component of the Village Child Committee: CRG has been instrumental in assisting the setting up of Bal Sabhas (children’s meetings) and Bal Panchayats (representatives of the village children) in around 10 villages in North Goa. The Village Child Committee (VCC) is an important child protection mechanism at the village level. It is comprised of adults who are concerned about children and has at least one child member.  Children are encouraged to communicate their difficulties to the VCC. This facilitates an interface between the adult members of the village including elected representatives of the Village Panchayat and children. The VCC can play a role in identifying vulnerable children. In two villages VCCs have taken steps to protect vulnerable children – community members play a role in assisting vulnerable children and securing justice for them.  

6. How do you ensure access of child victims to support services?

•	CRG’s multifaceted campaign involving different stakeholders including its direct beneficiary that is children has resulted in numerous cases being reported to CRG, Police and Childline. Through different types of IEC material CRG attempts to provide contact details of support services for child victims as well as all the children in need of care and protection. These IEC materials are put in public places such as shacks, buses, in the community, etc. 
•	Secondly, CRG’s child participation programmes through FLiP clubs at Baga, Calangute & Candolim Centres, right based awareness sessions in around 30 schools in North Goa, the process of Village Child Committee helps children in identifying different types of support services.
•	Thirdly, CRG’s publication namely Directory of Support Services for Children in Goa – 2014 is a ready document providing information about different services including Police, Health, Government mechanisms on child protection, children’s homes, counselling services, etc. This publication is available with children’s homes, NGOs, Police etc
•	Fourthly, ‘Be Smart – Stay Safe!’ is a child friendly pocket size publication by CRG specially for children on different ways of keeping safe and people to contact when any child is in danger. 
•	Fifthly, CRG members are accessible on mobile phone whenever a child victim contacts or if any body wants to approach CRG for assistance in child related matter. 
•	Sixthly, CRG has Counsellors who provide psychological support to vulnerable children 
•	Seventhly, CRG’s ongoing awareness programmes amongst different stakeholders including the community, parents 
7. How do you adopt and implement a gender perspective in the establishment and management of the assistance and rehabilitation programmes? Do the programmes provide gender-specific measures for the care and recovery of boys and girls?

Gender specific measures adopted are in keeping with Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Protocols for assisting child victims:
1. Insist on the presence of a lady police when a girl child’s statement is being recorded or during any other procedure such as escorting the girl child for any other purpose.
2. Insist that a lady doctor conduct the forensic examination of the girl child.

8. Provide information on prevention programmes developed by your organization with a specific focus on children at risk or in vulnerable situations (e.g. children working and/or living on the street, children placed in institutions, unaccompanied migrant children).

Child Empowerment Programme: CRG runs FLiP Centres on the North Goa Castal belt with the objective of keeping children safe who are vulnerable to abuse . 
Safety Education Programme: CRG conducts sessions in schools on the prevention of abuse 
Screening of Niragas: A Konkani Film on child sexual abuse ‘Niragas’ produced by CRG is screened and discussed with children at schools, children in institutions, children in the FLiP centres, during parents meetings in the basti and other stake holders’ meetings. ‘Niragas’ is about child abuse and protection mechanisms to ensure justice to the child victim.
Promotion of Children’s Committees in the institutions as mandated under the Juvenile Justice Act: CRG had initiated the process of Children’s Committee at the Government run children’s home in Goa. 
Child Protection Policy: CRG is lobbying with the government to introduce the Child Protection Policy to ensure children’s safety in the children’s institution
Personal Safety Education Kit: CRG  has developed a kit to be used by teachers with primary school students or by VCCs with village children. 
Village and City Child Committees: At the village-level different programmes are conducted to foster Child Protection.