Award for cops with active role in protecting child rights

Kolkata: For the first time ever, policemen are going to be awarded for their extraordinary work in the field of child rights.

The initiative has been taken by the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights that has decided to award three policemen for their work in the said field. The award will be given at a programme on November 21 during the International Child Rights Week.

Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, the Chairperson of the Commission, said: "This is the first time when the initiative has been taken up to award the policemen for their work in this field."

She also added: "It may be mentioned that sometimes we get to hear that the police have not looked into a complaint properly. But at the same time, there are several cases in which policemen take very proactive steps and help children when they are in deep trouble.

There are several cases in which police take steps to protect rights of children whenever they get information regarding any incident," said Chakraborti. She further said that this would help in motivating more policemen in taking proactive steps to protect the rights of children. The Commission has sent letters to Superintendents of Police of all the districts and Commissioners of all the Police Commissionerates to send names of the policemen who have done "extraordinary" work in this particular field.

After receiving names of all the policemen, the experts in the Commission will be finalising three names who will be getting the awards. The three names will be finalised on the basis of the work they have carried out.

The Commission is also strongly considering if the awards can be named after a renowned personality. The final decision in this regard is yet to be taken.

Besides the three policemen, the Commission will also be honouring two homes for children on the basis of their performance. Out of the two, one will be a state-run home while the other will be an NGO-run.

The programme will be held at Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) in Salt Lake. For the past few years, during the International Child Rights Week, the Commission has been organising various programmes including tram rides for the kids.