Shillong, May 28: The Meghalaya State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) is in the process of preparing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines to ensure the safety and well-being of children sent outside the state for education with the help of NGOs.
“We have been seeing reports and also hearing from many sources about children going out of the state and staying in illegally established institutes. There have been cases where children have been food poisoned, and two have even died,” said MSCPCR Chairperson Agatha K. Sangma after an inter-departmental meeting held to strengthen mechanisms for protecting such children on Tuesday.
Referring to the recent tragic incident in a hostel in Karnataka where two students from Meghalaya died due to food poisoning and 22 others were hospitalised, she added, “This is an alarming situation arising when children are being taken out of the state. As a commission, we are holding multi-departmental meetings with representatives from education, police, health, labour, and the law department.”
She further stated, “We have decided to hold a brainstorming session to take suggestions from various departments. We will come up with certain SOPs and guidelines to ensure that children who are being taken out of the state are only allowed to go after certain pre-requisites are fulfilled.”
Speaking about Monday’s meeting, the Chairperson said, “Today we had very valuable suggestions from various departments. Once we come up with the documents, we will be happy to share them with you. But as of now, there are several suggestions we have received and we need to take note of them.”
The Commission aims to establish clear procedures to prevent any future incidents and to ensure that children’s rights and safety are not compromised when they are placed in institutions outside Meghalaya.
