Delhi: Child Rights Commission develops new portal to help children in distress

According to officials, this early warning system can help prevent the incidents of dropouts and can also assist children in high-risk situations.

How will the system work?

According to DCPCR President Anurag Kundu, the system will send an SMS to the parent of a child who is absent for more than seven consecutive days or whose attendance is only 30% in a month.

The SMS will give the message that the school is missing the student and is waiting for them to return.

The next day, the parent will receive an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call where a recorded message will prompt the student to return to school.

On the third day, the parents will receive a call from the teacher, asking the reason for the child’s prolonged absence from school. After knowing the reason, the teacher will give the detail information in the portal.

The child will be assisted by the school and if the cause is major, for example, death of a parent or both the parents, DCPCR and other bodies will come forward to assist the child.

system needs

Kundu said that he started working on the project in October and was supposed to start it in April, but the second wave of coronavirus deferred his plans.

He explained that if a child is absent for a long time, it is an indicator that they are facing a major crisis at home which is affecting their studies.

He said that the crisis could be loss of income of parents, early marriage, child labour, illness of parents, disability etc.

He said the system would detect early signs, which are long-term absences from school, and help authorities work on it before the situation worsens.

So far, 250 principals of the two districts have conducted an orientation program on this system. The system is going to monitor the physical classes.

With inputs from agencies.