SHILLONG: In view of dearth of counselors in the country to provide children the basic support, the member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Rupa Kapoor said there was urgent need to train supervisors, social workers other people in the institutions as counselors.
Kapoor was in the city to deliver a lecture during at the workshop on “Continuing professional development of counselors working in CCIs,” organized by State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and NCPCR.
She told reporters that though children in observation homes were given care but the kind of mental care that should be given was very less and counselors were very less in the country and most of the time they were not able to give individual time to children.
“We felt that since we cannot provide counselors everywhere, we felt the need to train supervisors, social workers, other people in the institutions as counselors,” she said.
“If they know the basic issues of counseling and if they know what is going wrong with the children then they can protect the children from doing something very drastic,” she said adding that there are times when children can be violent, suicidal which makes it all the more important to address the issue.
Kapoor pointed out that child rights budgets should be increased for children while more resources and counselors should be provided at the same time, children should be provided support in schools and communities.
“We have brought doctors together from all the country and we have come out with a handbook in counseling which is available in our website,” she said.
She stated that that the Commission is together with the Ministry of Panchayat so that children can be safeguarded at the Panchayat level itself, protection measures to be maintained at home level, village level, street level.
Kapoor said, “We should protect our children from migrating from villages and coming to cities, we should protect them from becoming street children in the street.”
On the other hand, she added that mental health problems in India were increasing by the day and it was becoming one of the most critical issues with many people opening up about their mental illness.