As a timely wakeup call for the recent horrific misfortunes that children were exposed to, the government is working on instituting a minimum child safety and protection protocol in all primary schools.
The protection system will safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The education ministry, National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC) and the department of local governance will work jointly and present the protocols to the cabinet by the end of this month for review.
Leading the initiative, Health Minister Dechen Wangmo said instituting a system in place will protect children and ensure their safety. She said that a child-upbringing has to be a shared responsibility to provide a safe environment for children to grow and thrive.
“I think it’s a wakeup call for us. I think if you all look at it when it happened, I went and talked to NCWC, I went there and met with the family, I also talked to the investigating team. And then we really had a reflection of what is available in our system. If we look at our current scenario, system and context, a child as young as six years old are sent off. The moment the school bell rings, they have to leave, they have to manage their own transport and then we started questioning ourselves, is that the right age to be taking responsibility, shouldering that responsibility? And then who is responsible? Then we realize there are gaps in our system,” said Lyonpo.
The protection system is expected to build and maintain a proactive environment that protects children by either preventing child abuse before it occurs or by ensuring its earlier possible detection, intervention and reporting. It will engage parents, teachers and all stakeholders to come together to prioritize a child’s safety.
“They can form groups where a group of parents will take turns to drop them off and these modalities will eventually be decided by individual schools but there should be a requirement that a child should not be unsupervised. So this is one and the second one is- I was looking at some other countries as well and other countries they have found this buddy programme very effective. So we were saying even having brother and sister programmes in school where the older children take responsibility of the younger ones. The third one I can see is having certain after-school programmes in the school so that children are kept in a safe environment until the parents come and get them. So all these things will have to have a holistic approach to looking at this. It takes a village to raise a child and we must and should come together for the wellbeing of our children,” Lyonpo added.
Child abuse and neglect, particularly sexual abuse are among the world’s most serious concerns according to the International Center for Assault Prevention. And in Bhutan, nearly twenty cases were received and prosecuted by the Office of Attorney General on the rape of a minor since 2015.
Sonam Pem
