Press Release

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development and the Directorate of Education, GNCTD of Delhi, scaled the Reading Campaign to 62 Children Homes panning 1,000+ children in Children's homes to ensure sustained learning outcomes of children in foundational literacy and numeracy.

The Commission aims to ensure that 100% of the children are able to read Hindi fluently with comprehension and perform arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by August 2022.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), the Delhi Govt’s statutory authority constituted with the goal of promoting the cause of children, has decided to launch awards to recognise individuals and institutions who have contributed substantially to the cause of the children. The Awards would be pan-India, and would be called “Children’s Champion Awards”.

The awards shall be conferred in the 12 categories i.e Politics, Jurist, Journalism, Education, Health & Nutrition, Child Protection, Art, Academia, Sports, Business and Public Service. There is a separate category to recognise Children who have displayed leadership in solving problems. Any person can nominate any individual or an institution who has contributed towards the cause of the children.

Continuing its efforts to build systemic capacity on the issues related to children and bringing focus on child centric governance, the Commission organised one-day training on child rights for the 58th and 59th batch of 30 DANICS probationary officers. The training was organised in collaboration with the Union Territory Civil Services Institute.

These officers will play critical role as Sub-Divisional Magistrates, and District Magistrates in conducting rescue operations for child labour issues, review the functioning of Child Welfare Committees and act as grievance redressal authority in certain matters among other things. The training session was facilitated by Sh. Anurag Kundu (Chairperson, DCPCR), Ms. Bharti Ali (Co-Founder, HAQ Centre for Child Rights) and Sh. Anant Asthana (Eminent Child Rights Advocate).

Having handled nearly 2.5 lakh calls in the past 1 year, DCPCR Helpline is now expanding to include an emergency response system by means of an on-field distress helpline team.

The ‘Children Distress Response Helpline’ will be a critical government helpline service for physically reaching out to children in distressed and SOS situations.

The team will not only provide relief to children who are in need of help but also proactively undertake preventative measures and conduct field visits to protect children at the risk of danger and exploitation, which may include children at the risk of child marriage, child labour, traficking, etc.

With the strategic support of Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD), Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) launched a project in collaboration with Salaam Baalak Trust and Youth Reach to deploy a dedicated field task-force for rehabilitation and reintegration of children in street situations.

Thousands of children live on the streets of Delhi. Engaging in non-formal work and begging as a means for survival, these children survive precariously in the unsafe environment of city streets. They are deprived of adequate and appropriate adult protection, education and health care.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) had launched the first issue of its journal on children’s lives in November 2021, namely Children First Journal on Children’s Lives. The inaugural issue of the journal gave the opportunity to many researchers, academicians, child rights activists and others from the field of child rights to come together to a platform and share their opinions and research to help people understand the lives of children better.

To expand the horizon of the bi-annual journal and further strengthen its editorial capacities, Ms Yamini Aiyar, President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Mr Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Law, National Law University, Delhi has consented to join the Editorial Board of the journal.

Justice Ravindra Bhat (Judge Supreme Court), Mr. Manish Sisodia (Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi) and Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque (UNICEF India Chief) launch DCPCR Launches Children First: Journal on Children’s Lives on 23rd October at India Islamic Cultural Centre.

This is the inaugural issue of the journal that DCPCR will be publishing half-yearly. The first theme of the issue is the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of the children.

On 24/09/2021, the 160th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter Madam Bhikaji Cama, a rescue operation was conducted at Bhikaji Cama Place. 8 children, including 5 girls and 3 boys, were rescued from begging and selling of lights and roses.

According to a UNICEF report, COVID-19 poses a threat to the future of 600 million children in South Asia. While 240 million children already live in "multidimensional" poverty, the crisis has pushed an additional 120 million children into this state of being. In the National Capital Territory itself, instances of child begging have increased rampantly, raising concerns for children’s safety and well-being.

5 rescue operations were conducted on 15/09/2021 at the following hotspots: (1) Rajouri Garden to Raja Garden Road; (2) City Square Mall; (3) TDI Mall; (4) West Gate Mall; (5) Tagore Garden metro station to Subhash Nagar metro station. 22 children, including 9 girls and 13 boys, were rescued from begging, rag picking and street situations.

A Rescue Operation was conducted on 03/08/2021 at Chirag Delhi flyover near Saket metro station, and 4 children were rescued from begging and street situations, including 2 girls and 2 boys. These children were found begging with no masks, while being exposed to potentially threatening situations including physical violence, sexual exploitation and emotional abuse. The circumstances were posing a serious threat to their lives especially during these times of pandemic.

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT of Delhi, organised a one-day training and capacity building session for the Project Team of the Reading Campaign on 9th August 2021 to ensure sustained learning outcomes of children in foundational literacy and numeracy in the Child Care Institutes.

Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) is organising 2-days capacity building-cum-raining programme for Child Welfare Committees (CWC), Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) and District Child Protection Officers (DCPO) on 5th-6th August 2021.

Sh Anurag Kundu, Chairperson, DCPCR articulated the need, design and background of the training programme. He also shared the learning from the first round wherein the hon’ble Minister of Women & Child Development Sh. Rajendra Pal Gautam and Justice Madan Lokur (Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India) were the Chief Guests. He highlighted how important Child Welfare Committees are given thousands of children have lost one or both parents.

In the first week of April, DCPCR launched an all day functional helpline (9311551393) for citizens to report any case or seek any information pertaining to the rights of Child Rights.

Helpline has now completed three months of operation. DCPCR received nearly 4500 complaints from April to June 2021. Of these, 2200 were SOS complaints requiring immediate attention. 85% of the SOS complaints responded within 24 hours, and 15% within 72 hours.

DCPCR has facilitated rescue operations of 331 children labours in the year 2020-21 compared to 202 children in preceding 3 years in total, an increase of nearly 490% displaying DCPCR’s renewed commitment to eliminating child labour from Delhi

Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) organised the second round of the training programme for Child Welfare Committees (CWC), Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) and District Child Protection Officers (DCPO) on 6-7th March 2021.

A raid and rescue operation was conducted in 7 places on 19.02.2021 under the jurisdiction of Police Station- Samaypur Badli and 11 children have been rescued from their work station. These children were working in hazardous conditions as bonded labour in bakery units, kharat machine units and auto centre units of the Alipur area of North Delhi District. One child was rescued from a residential place where he was working as a domestic worker. The rescued children were exposed to all kinds of physical and mental trauma, especially in the times of a Covid pandemic.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights launched a week-long Digital Campaign ‘Ab Pata Chal Jaane Do’ to shed the ‘guilt and ‘shame’ associated with menstruation, causing trauma, ignored health issues and misdiagnosis for girls. This campaign aims to raise awareness on menstruation, break stereotypes and promote menstrual hygiene.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) conducted a Rapid Response Survey to examine the status of distribution of Dry Ration from Anganwadis to the entitled beneficiaries i.e, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children below 6 years of age .

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has disposed off 1445 cases during the last quarter, i.e. from October to December, 2020. It is nearly 1224% times the earlier average disposal rate and the highest since it has been constituted. In the earlier quarter i.e., July to September 2020, the Commission disposed off 432 cases.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has reached out to Chairpersons, District Development Committees/Member of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) seeking support and cooperation in boosting the efforts being made by the Commission to make Delhi ‘Child Labour-Free’ by 2023.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), Govt. of NCT of Delhi, in collaboration with Ashoka University, is launching a ‘Child Rights Fellowship’ to engage young professionals in public governance and strengthen the cause of children.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights held the first meeting of the Advisory Board Meeting of ‘Journal of Child Rights’, launched recently with an aim to provide a platform to practitioners, researchers, academicians, and field workers involved in enabling child rights and improving their lives in various capacities and thus, find answers to challenges to child rights, globally.

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights completed its two-part orientation session of members of the School Management Committee (SMC) Cell, an initiative, which aims to further decentralize management of government schools by enhancing community participation and parent involvement

Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) is launching a half-yearly ‘International Journal of Child Rights’ which is critical to deepening the discourse on the subject of rights of children across the globe Hon'ble Justice Madan Lokur (Retired Justice, Supreme Court of India), Ms. Sujatha K Rao (Former Union Health Secretary), Mr. Gyanendra Badgaiyan (Senior Fellow, IDFC/Former IAS/Former Chief Economist UN University) and Ms. Enakshi Ganguly (Founder, HAQ: Centre for Child Rights/Expert-JJ/POCSO) has agreed to be the Advisory Panel of the Journal