New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has started the process of identifying geographical hotspots where instances of violations of child rights are the highest in the city. As per the child rights body, this process would include examining the reported cases of child sexual abuse, children forced into substance abuse, instances of child labour, child begging, and reported cases of missing children in each of the police stations, and identifying smaller localities where such instances are most frequent. "Once these hotspots are identified, the commission would initiate engaging with various stakeholders to strategize its plan of action to ensure that such instances are reduced, and eventually eliminated," DCPCR said, adding that crime data from the Delhi Police would be crucial to proceed with the study. However, the Delhi Police have not yet shared this data with the child rights body. Anurag Kundu, Chairperson, DCPCR said, "Various criteria are being checked to identify areas that are hotspot which includes the socio-economic circumstances, educational levels, child labour, begging and crimes against children." He added, "After identification of the areas we can make necessary interventions to ensure the safety of children." The commission, in a report, acknowledged that children who drop out of schools until standard VIII because of adverse circumstances including disability, abandonment, child labour, death of a loved one, abuse, trafficking, HIV status, etc. face structural challenges in getting integrated into the mainstream education system. "The commission has suggested an amendment to admission rules for grade IX. According to the new rules, DCPCR and the Child Welfare Committees can recommend admissions of children who have had challenging experiences in appropriate schools even if they do not meet benchmarked criteria," the report read. Last September, the commission had initiated the process of building an early warning system using students school attendance data based on the understanding that a childs prolonged absence from schools reflects upon adverse conditions that the childs family is unable to overcome. In August 2020, the DCPCR constituted the School Management Committee (SMC) cell to encourage quality education and eliminate child labour. The cell has managed to track more than 1,200 children that schools have previously struggled to establish contact with and raise their concerns with the commission for appropriate assistance.

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