SRINAGAR: With reference to the order of Supreme Court (SC) of India, passed in Suo Moto Writ (SMW) no 4 of 2020, the Government of J&K has appointed Mission Director (MD) ICPS, Shabnam Shah Kamili as Nodal Officer in the UT of J&K, for coordinating covid mitigation steps in child protection homes.
According to order no 80-SWD (J&K) of 2021 on 16th June, the appointed Nodal Officer in cooperation with learned amicus curiae has to provide all necessary information relating to the identification of orphans and action taken by district authorities for their welfare.
A high level virtual meeting was also held today in cognizance to this order, noted certain actions that need to be taken in order to contain the spread of virus in Child Protection Homes (CPH). During the meeting threadbare discussions were held on the steps taken by ICPS to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Many of the points discussed in the meeting were- Identification of children orphaned due to pandemic by District Child Protection officers, guidelines for their care and protection, designation of one Child care institution (CCI) in each district, counselling of children affected by COVID-19, foster homes for children, importance of ChildLine.
The virtual meeting observed the presence of V Somasundaran, Union Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child development GOI, Secretary social welfare J&K, Sheetal Nanda, Mission Director, ICPS, Shabnam Shah Kamili and others who spoke on the re-contagion of COVID-19 in child protection homes.
According to the SMW ‘In re contagion of COVID 19 Virus in child protection homes’ there are children who need care and attention and are kept in or children in conflict with law who are kept in various types of homes. In these circumstances, it was felt that the interest of these children should be looked into.