Karnataka State Plan of Action for Children 2011-2020 (DRAFT)

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Title
Karnataka State Plan of Action
for Children 2011-2020 (DRAFT)
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Karnataka State Plan of Action
for Children 2011-2020 (DRAFT)

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BACKGROUND

6

Articles addressing Children in the Constitution of India

6

Preparation of the State Action Plan:

8

Structure of the State Action Plan:

8

Child Related Policies and Action Plans

9

Acts and Legislations Related to Children

9

Children and the Millennium Development Goals:

10

13
INFANTS AND EARLY CHILDHOOD [0-6 YEARS]

14

Vision of the state

14

Existing schemes and policies

15

Going forward: Key areas of focus

20

23

CHILDREN [6- 14 YEARS]

24

Vision of the state

24

Existing schemes and policies

25

Going forward: Key areas of focus

30

ADOLESCENTS [14 - 17 YEARS]

38

Vision of the state

38

Existing schemes and policies

38

SA BA LA

Going forward: Key areas of focus

GIRL CHILD

39

40

44

Vision of the state

44

Existing schemes and policies

45

Going forward: Key areas of focus

48

51

DIFFERENTLY-ABLED CHILDREN

52

Vision of the state

52

Existing schemes and policies

52

Going forward: Key focus areas

54

55

CHILD PROTECTION

56

Vision

56

Existing schemes and policies

57

Going forward: Key focus areas

59

DECENTRALIZED EXECUTION

66

ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY

66

Streamlining the delivery of services

67

Child-friendly policies

68

Implement child tracking and child help lines

68

HEALTH

71

Maternal Health

71

Neo-natalcare

74

Early childcare

77

Adolescent Health

84

Water and sanitation

86

EDUCATION

91

Primary Education

91

Secondary education

94

Life skills

97

Inclusive Education

99

Child Protection

106

CHILD PROTECTION

107

Child trafficking

107

Child pornography.

110

Child Marriage

112

Child Labour

114

Child Abuse

117

Rehabilitation and Care

119

Annexure

123

ANNEXURE

124

Annexure 1:
List of documents consulted for developing the SPAC 2011-20

124

Annexure 2
List of persons and departments consulted for developing the SPAC: 2011-2010

125

Annexure 3:
List of NGOs consulted for developing First Draft of SPAC

126

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Background

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Background
A commitment to children as the citizens of India can be found in the Constitution of India. The

central and the state governments have come out with several policies, plans and programmes for
the welfare of the children. After ratifying and accepting the Convention on the Rights of the

Children (CRC), several steps have been taken by the government for child development and
well being of children. However, there are still a number of problems facing children in the state.

The State Action Plan for Children (SPAC) seeks to address what needs to be done to ensure
children’s survival, development, protection and participation.

Articles addressing Children in the Constitution of India
Article 1: The State shall not deny to any Article 39: The State shall serve everyone

person equality before law or the equal equally
protection of laws within the territory of

India
Article

15:

discriminate

State

shall

not Article 39 F: The States shall, in

against any

citizen

on particular,

The

grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or securing
place of birth

direct

its

policy

children

that

towards

given

are

opportunities and facilities to develop in a
healthy manner and in conditions of

freedom and dignity and that childhood

youth

are

exploitation

and

and

protected
against

against

moral

and

material abandonment
Article 21: No person shall be deprived Article 45: The State shall endeavour to

of his life or personal liberty except provide

early

childhood

care

and

according to procedure established by education for all children until they reach

law

six years of age

Article 21 A: The State shall provide free Article 47: The State shall have the duty

and compulsory education to all children to raise the level of nutrition and the
aged 6-14 years in such manner as the standard of living and to improve public

State may, by law, determine

health

Article 23: Prohibition of traffic in Article 243G read with schedule 11. To
human beings and forced labour and any provide for institutionalization of child
contravention of this provision shall be care by seeking to entrust programmes of
an offence punishable in accordance with Women

the law

and

Child

Development

to

panchayat (item 25 of Schedule 11), apart
from education (item 17), family welfare
(item 25). health and sanitation (item 23)

and other items with a bearing on the
welfare of children

Article 24: No child below the age of 14
years shall be employed to work in any
factory or mine or engaged in any other

hazardous employment

The Karnataka State Plan of Action for Children has been developed in the context of the UN
Millennium Development Goals. It covers all children1 under the age of 18 in Karnataka,
including those yet to be born. The goals and strategies outlined here will be incorporated in the

planning and implementation of all government programmes related to children.

The plan also provides the guiding framework for all development agencies and inteinational
organizations working on children's issues in Karnataka. It should guide their progiamme

interventions and ensure coordination of programme activities and resources with state

1
The Government of Karnataka accepts the definition of the child as given in Article 1 of the UNCRC, which
states: "a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier". This definition clearly specifies the upper age limit of 18 years but recognizes that the
majority may be obtained at an earlier age under laws applicable to the child. As a consequence there is co­
existence of various legislations with different age definition of child as accepted under the particular law. For
example, the Indian Constitution confers the "right to life" to the child in the womb and acknowledges their right
to survival and protection.

government departments. It is important that government departments work together if we want
to achieve the goals in the timeframes set out. There is also a need to strengthen partnerships
with others working to improve children’s lives, including NGOs, the private sector and public­

private partnerships.

Preparation of the State Action Plan:
The preparation of the SPAC has taken place in two phases. In Phase I individual meetings were
held with all the relevant departments and with NGOs2. The aim was to arrive at a State Plan of
Action for the 2010 to 2020 period by reviewing existing plans and undertaking a visioning

exercise with the departments. The list of documents consulted for developing the SPAC has
been attached.

Phase II: 5 detailed consultative meetings will be held in the period January 1 -April 20

2010 with key government departments, representative civil society organizations and
involved citizens.

Structure of the State Action Plan:
The SPAC is divided into two parts. The first part contains the vision of the Government for
achieving the holistic development of the child. This part is divided into sections based on the
age group of the beneficiaries; Infant and Early Childhood (0-6 years), Children (6-14 years) and

Adolescents (14-17 years). In addition, there are three specific focus groups in the first section of
the SPAC; Girl Child, Children with Disability and Orphan and Vulnerable Children. This is to
ensure that the specific challenges faced by these children are addressed in the Government’s

vision.

In the second part of the SPAC, the vision is translated into an actionable plan which contains the
government’s objectives, goals and limelines for the goals under each theme. This section is

divided into four themes (Education, Health, Protection and Holistic Development) which are

further divided into sub-themes.

2

Detailed list is attached.

Child Related Policies and Action Plans

1974

National Policy for Children

1983

National Health Policy (2002)

1986

National Policy on Education

1987

National Policy on Child Labour

1991-2000

National Plan of Action for SAARC Decade of
the Girl Child

1992

National Plan of Action for Children

1993

National Nutritional Policy

1995

National Plan of Action on Nutrition

2000

National Initiative for Child Protection

2007

Action Plan to Combat Trafficking of Women

and Children in Karnataka
March Towards

2010

Child

Labour Free State

(MATCH)- Action Plan: 2010-2017

Legislations Related to Children






The Children(Pledging of Labor) Act,



Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of

1993

Children) Act 2000

Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act •

The Commision for Protection of Child

1956

Rights Act, 2005

Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act •

Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act,

1976

1956 and Amendment Bill, 2008

Labour

Child



(Prevention

and •

Commission for Protection of Child

Regulation) Act 1986

Rights (Amendment) Act, 2006

Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles •

Pre-natal

and

Infant

Foods

(regulation

Diagnostics

Techniques

(Regulation and Prevention of Misuse)

of

Act 1994

Production, Supply and Distribution) Act,
1992


Offense Against Children Bill, 2006



Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006



Persons

with

Disabilities

(Equal

opportunities, Protection of Rights and

Full Participation) Act 2000




Right to Education Act, 2009



The Hindu Minority and Guardianship .

The Family Court Acts, 1984
The Guardian and Ward Act, 1890

Act, 1956

Children and the Millennium Development Goals:
The Karnataka State Plan of Action is targeted at achieving the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Though the MDGs are for all humankind, they are primarily about children3, since
children are most vulnerable when people lack essentials like food, water, sanitation and
healthcare. Child Rights can be significantly realised if the MDGs are met.

Goal 1

Goal5

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Improve maternal health





Reduce by half the proportion of people •

Reduce by three-quarters the maternal

living on less than a dollar a day

mortality rate

Reduce by half the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger

3

http://www.unicef.org/mdg/28184_28230.htm

14
Goal 2

Goal 6

Achieve universal primary education

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other

diseases


Ensure that all boys and girls complete a •

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of

full course of primary schooling

HIV/AIDS



Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of
malaria and other major diseases

Goal 3

Goal 7

Promote gender equality and empower Ensure environmental sustainability

women


Eliminate gender disparity in primary and



Integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and

secondary education

loss

reverse

programmes;

of

environmental resources



Reduce by half the proportion of people
sustainable

without

access

to

safe

drinking water



Achieve improvement in lives of at least
100 million slum dwellers by 2020

Goal 4

Goal8

Reduce child mortality

Develop

global

a

partnership

for

development


Reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate
among children under five



Develop further an open trading and

financial

system

and

predictable

includes

a

that

is

rule-based,

non-discriminatory,

commitment

to

good

governance, development and poverty
reduction- nationally and internationally

Address the least developed countries’



special needs. This includes tariff- and
quota-free

access

for

their

exports;

enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted
poor countries; cancellation of official

bilateral debt; and more generous official

development assistance

for countries

committed to poverty reduction



Address the special needs of landlocked

and small island of developing states


Deal comprehensively with developing
countries’ debt problems through national
and international measures to make debt
sustainable in the long term



In

cooperation

with

the

developing

countries develop decent and productive
work for youth



In

cooperation

with

pharmaceutical

companies, provide access to affordable

essential drugs in developing countries



In cooperation with the private sector,

make available the benefits of new

technologies- especially information and
communications technologies

Karnataka State Action Plan for children 2011-20



Overview and Vision
Early childhood [0-6 years]

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Infants and Early childhood [0-6 years]
Vision of the state
Every infant represents the promise and potential for a better tomorrow. The early years of the

child are crucial since the nutrition and immunization that is provided to the child between the
ages of 0 to 6 determines the long-term well being of the child. In addition, the child’s ability to
learn and understand is highest during this phase. Hence, it is of utmost importance that early

childcare ensures the holistic development of the child.
Keeping this in mind, it is envisioned that every child, irrespective of his/her social and

economic condition.


Is provided all the support to ensure its survival and overall wellbeing



Has access to wholesome and timely nutritious food



Has access to the essential healthcare services in its neighbourhood



Has the right opportunities and environment to ensure its holistic development



Is provided a safe and conducive environment



Is safeguarded from risks such as child trafficking, child pornography and sexual abuse

crimes; and can reach out to a trusted entity for rehabilitation and care.

In achieving this vision. Government of Karnataka acknowledges that the family or the guardian
of the child is best positioned to ensure the wellbeing of the child. It recognises that the child

and the mother are not individual beneficiaries but one unit. The wellbeing of one is closely

intertwined with the wellbeing of the other. All strategies that are implemented as part of the
early child care will be cognizant of this reality and will enable and support the family or the

legal guardian to best take care of the child.

Existing schemes and policies
The state government’s focus addresses children in the age group of 0 to 6, pregnant women and
nursing mothers.
Today, the following are the primary departments involved in addressing their needs



Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD)



Department of Health and Family Welfare Services
In addition, for vulnerable children, the Department of Social Welfare, Education and

Labour and Department of Disabled Welfare provide creches and early care support.

The Government of Karnataka has made birth registration mandatory and is ensuring this by
making registration a requirement for eligibility under various schemes.

One of the key schemes implemented to address the health and wellbeing of both the mothers

and the children is the Integrated Child Development Scheme (LCDS). ICDS is the world’s
largest integrated childhood programme. The objectives of ICDS are



To improve the nutritional and health status of pre-school children in the age group of 0-6

years


To lay the foundation of proper psychological development of the child



To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school drop-outs



To achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst various
departments to promote child development and



To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional
needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education

Schemes addressing pregnant mothers

Integrated Child Development Scheme
Under this scheme run by the Department of Women and Child Development, pregnant women
are provided the following services at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC). The AWW (Anganwadi

Worker), Auxiliary mid Nurse (ANM) or LHV (Lady Health Visitor) are responsible for

implementation of services under the scheme.
a. Nutrition: As per the norms, lactating mothers are to be provided supplementary nutrition

and take home rations twice a month i.e the state needs to ensure that the lactating mother
receives 600 calories per day and 18-20 grams of protein, b.Immunisation:

Tetanus

Toxoid is given to pregnant women. The first dose is given as early as possible after
pregnancy and the second dose 1 month after the 1 dose. The booster dose is given in a
subsequent pregnancy, if TT vaccine has been taken with the last 3 years. ANM, LHV

and Medical officer (MO) are responsible.

c. Health check up: Ante natal check up is done by the Auxiliary mid Nurse (ANM) at the
pregnant woman’s house/anganwadi. 3 antenatal check- ups are done during pregnancy.
Mother-Child Health card is given to the beneficiary to record ante-natal care.

d. Nutrition and Health Education: Two mothers’ meetings are to be conducted in a month
by the AWW. A minimum of 1 health education camp in coordination with the

Department of Health and Family Welfare, is held per month. Apart from these duties,

the AWW is to make home visits to impart education.
e. Health and referral services: Referral slips are provided in each AWC to the PHC

(Primary Health Centre) or CHC (Central Health Centre). Beneficiaries with referral slips

are to be attended to on a priority basis at the health centres.

Schemes for Nursing Women

Integrated Child Development Schemes
Under ICDS, nursing women are provided the following services:

Nutrition: As per the norms, lactating mothers are to be provided supplementary nutrition

and take home rations twice a month i.e the state needs to ensure that the lactating mother
receives 600 calories per day and 18-20 grams of protein, h. Immunisation:

Tetanus

Toxoid is given to pregnant women. The first dose is given as early as possible after
pregnancy and the second dose 1 month after the 1st dose. The booster dose is given in a
subsequent pregnancy, if TT vaccine has been taken with the last 3 years. ANM, LHV

and Medical officer (MO) are responsible.
c. Health check up: Post natal check up is done by the Auxiliary mid Nurse (ANM) at the

mothers house/anganwadi home. Each lactating mother is visited at least twice by health
staff within first 10 days of delivery at the home. A record is kept of the birth date and
weight of the child on the growth chart. The lactating mother is provided information on

family planning methods.

d. Nutrition and Health Education: Two mothers’ meetings are to be conducted in a month

by the AWW. A minimum of 1 health education camp in coordination with the
Department of Health and Famly Welfare, is held per month. Apart from these duties,

the AWW is to make home visits to impart education. Through mothers’ meetings,
health education camps and home visits, education is provided by the AWW, Supervisor

and CDPO.

e. Health and referral services: To provide health services to nursing mothers in need of
special medical care, referral slips are provided in each AWC to a PHC or CHC. Follow
up action is done by the AWW.

Thayi Bhagya is an integrated scheme of the Department of Health and Family Welfare. The

scheme encompasses four programs: Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), Prasooti Araike, Madilu
and Thayi Bhagya. Thayi Bhagya aims at maximising institutional deliveries for better maternal
and child care and reduction of mortality The objectives of this programme are reducing
maternal and infant mortality rate, providing health care to all pregnant women, especially those
living in tribal, mountainous and inaccessible regions, encouraging pregnant women to have

regular natal check ups, and to fund caesarean section whenever required. Promotion of the
participation of private institutions in health care and encouragement for small family norms are
also part of the vision of the scheme.

Janani Suraksha Yojana: is part of the Thayi Bhagya scheme of the Department of Health. The

objective is to give financial assistance to the poor pregnant women during delivery. Under this

scheme, pregnant women belonging to below poverty line families and SC, ST families will get
an assistance of Rs. 500 if delivered at home, Rs. 600 for urban institutional delivery, Rs. 700 for

delivery in health centres in rural areas, and Rs. 1500 for caesarean delivery. This benefit is

available if the delivery takes place in recognized private health institutions also. To be eligible,
the woman must be above 19 years of age and must have got ANC check up at-least 3 times.

SC/ST Women not belonging to BPL families are also entitled for this benefit if they are
admitted to general ward of Government or Registered Private Hospital.

Madilu was a scheme started by the health department to provide post natal care to the mother

and the child. The objective of this scheme is to encourage poor pregnant women to deliver in
health centres and hospitals in order to considerably reduce maternal and infant mortality in the

state. Under this scheme a kit containing various items of essential requirement for the mother
and the child such as mosquito net, bed sheets, warm blanket, sanitary napkins etc. are provided.
To be eligible for the Madilu kit, a woman must belong to a BPL family, and the delivery must

have taken place in a Government hospital. The benefit is limited to two live deliveries.
Schemes for children between 0-6 months

Integrated Child Development Scheme

4Under ICDS, a package of 6 services is provided to children including access to supplementary
nutrition, immunisation, health check-ups and referrals,, health check-ups and referrals,
nutritional and health education services and non formal pre-school education,, early detection of

disability and provision of assistance to malnourished children.
a. Children are weighed once a month, and the new WHO growth chart is updated in the

Mother- Child health card a separate book kept for this purpose at the Anganwadi
(Maguina Belavanege Melucharne Chart - growth chart for child). 1 he child is weighed

at at the anganwadi centre every month, and this information is updated in the growth

chart record with a view to keep an eye on the physical growth and development of the
child.
b. Children are immunised as per schedule at the AWC/ Sub centre by the ANM.

c. The AWW/ANM visit the house of the child at least twice within the first ten days of
delivery, for general health checkups and to advise the mother to feed the baby only

mother’s milk for the first six months.
d. The Medical Officer is responsible for a check-up done to detect any type of disability

and monitor development of the child. The check up is routinely conducted at a AWC

4 New WHO growth charts , with a gradings of malnutrition of severe moderate and mild replace the previous
growth charts which graded malnutrition between 1-4.

once in a quarter. Children who are severely affected should be referred to the PHC by
the Anganwadi Worker.

e. For severely malnourished children, financial assistance of Rs. 750 per annum is
provided to ensure their nutrition and medical expenses are met..

Bal Sanjeevni - Under 5 scheme for BPL families This scheme aims at arresting the rate of

severe malnutrition and seeks to bring about reduction in malnutrition among all children. All
children identified as suffering from malnutrition under each round of Bal Sanjeevni Campaign
are provided requisite medical treatment and parents/guardians of the identified malnourished

children are provided counseling regarding the significance of nutritional diet. Children who

need super speciality services are referred to recognised medical colleges. Going forward the
scheme should be extended to include more hospitals and medical colleges

Creches for children of working mothers

Children between 0 and 3 years whose mothers are engaged in agriculture and allied
occupations are covered under this scheme of the Department of Women and Child
Development. Day care services are set up where children are provided health care,

supplementary nutrition, facilities for children to sleep, immunization and recreation. The

Department assists Mahila Mandals and NGOs to set up these centres through Zilla Panchayats.
Schemes for children between 6 months- 3 years

Eligible children are provided services under ICDS that a package of 6 services is provided to
children including access to supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health checkups and
referrals, health check-ups and referrals, nutritional and health education services and non-formal
pre-school education. The details of the supplementary nutrition provided are as follows.

a

Rs. 4 per beneficiary per day and Rs. 6.00 for severely malnourished is provided in order

to meet a calorie and protein requirement of 500 calories and 12-15 grams of proteins
respectively for a normal child and 800 calories and 20-25 grams for a malnourished
child.

d. Take home rations (Amylase Energy Rich Food) distributed twice a month for all 6

months to 3 year olds
Schemes for children between 3- 6 years
Integrated Child Development Scheme Supplementary nutrition, financial assistance to

malnourished children, referral services and immunization, are provided to children of this age
group, eligible for ICDS coverage. The growth of the child is monitored by weighing of the child

in the anaganwad centre every month. , For this age group there is a greater focus on preschoold education.
Pre-school education is to be conducted every working day for about 2 hours. The education is
provided by the AWW in line with the syllabus of chilli pilli booklets and Vishaya Pradhana

Samagrha Shala Poorva Shikshayan. Pre-school education is very important to introduce the
children to the basics and pave the way for a smooth transition for the child from anganwadis to
schools. In pursuance of this objective, forty two subjects have been selected and each week one

of these subjects are taught to children. Subjects are taught using the “chilli pilli” books are in
the forms of stories and songs.
Every Anganwadi centre has been provided with Rs. 1000 worth of preschool kit. Pre school kits

are provided to the Anganwadis so that the children may learn through play. ?. The State intends

to follow an integrated thematic approach towards pre school education.
Creches by the Labour Department

Under various labour legislations such as Plantations

Labour Act, 1951, the Factories Act, 1948 and the Karnataka Factories Rules, 1969 and
regulations of the Construction and Other Workers Welfare Board, National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act it is mandated that employer provides creches for children in the 0-6 age group.

For children between the ages of 3-5, energy rich food is provided such as nutri corn, nutri-pop. Also

micronutrients are added to traditional foods such as kesari baths and bisi bele baths to make them more
palatable to children.

Early Child Care and Education: Strengthening Government Initiative through Cross
Learning

The Akshara Foundation runs the Balwadi6 programme for children between the ages of

4-6. Balwadis provide pre-school education to children and are established and run by
volunteers from within the community. This ensures the involvement of the community

in pre-school education. Balwadis also work along with anganwadis; balwadi volunteers
visit two anganwadis each and spending time teaching the kids. This ensures that the
anganwadi children also benefit from the combination of education and play that

balwadi programmes contain, while providing balwadi children access to immunization,

nutrition and healthcare programmes through the anganwadis.

Way forward: Key areas of focus
Over the last few years, ICDS has made substantial progress addressing concerns related to

health and overall development of both the mother and the child The government today runs an
impressive network of 60046 AWCs and 3331 mini Anganwadis covering all 175 taluks & 10

urban areas. At the heart of the operations of the AWCs are the Anganwadi workers, who play an
integral role in implementing activities that are delivered as part of the ICDS., The Anganwadi

worker is part of the community and hence can play a more proactive role in ensuring that the
mother and the child receive the required attention with respect to nutrition, and overall well

being.
However, further improvement in certain key areas can help improve the delivery on ground.

Following are the aspects which will be focussed on in this plan:


To ensure that the family is prepared to offer the right environment for the well-being of

the child, there is a need to raise awareness about family planning, use of contraceptives and
planned pregnancies.

6

http://www.aksharafQijndation.org/balwadi.html

In order to ensure eradication of malnutrition, there is a need to ensure effective
delivery of nutrients to either moderately or severely malnourished children. This

requires the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of
Women and Child Development to work in close coordination, in order to ensure the
identification of such children by the Anganwadi workers and the subsequent
treatment by the ASHA’s and the AN M’s.



In order to ensure effective delivery of services available to pregnant women under

ICDS, it is important to register their pregnancies as early as possible. Here, the role of

the ANM and ASHA workers in conjunction with the Anganwadi Workers is extremely

important since they can help identify and reach out to the pregnant women. They could
also serve as a recognizable point of contact for the pregnant women to reach out to.



With infants who are HIV+, the first 18 months require constant monitoring and
medical intervention. Hence the Government of Karnataka will focus its efforts on
identifying such cases and do a continuous follow up with the pregnant women so that
the infant and the mother can be tracked from the moment of birth.



Institutional deliveries ensure safer delivery, access to medical services and personnel. In
addition, it provides an opportunity to register births and share best practices such as

breast feeding and neonatal care. While the percentage of institutional deliveries has

increased over the years, specific awareness campaigns will be run to address cultural
issues that prohibit institutional deliveries.



There is a need for greater awareness and actionable recommendations for families to

ensure better sanitation in houses and neighbourhoods. Specifically, availability of clean
drinking water and efficient waste management practices will be ensured.





While there has been a strong focus on providing nutritious diet, there is still a

strong incidence of anaemia7 and goitre (due to iodine). This could be addressed

7 incidence of anaemia in pregnant women acc to Dept of Health and Family Welfare is 59.9%. Check MYRADA
study



through iron supplements and use of iodized salt respectively. In addition, there
will be a thrust to improve delivery of micronutrients to all age groups.

In order to ensure eradication of malnutrition, there is a need to ensure effective delivery of

nutrients to affected children. This requires the Department of Health and Family Welfare and
the Department of Women and Child Development to work in close coordination, in order to

ensure the identification of such children by the Anganwadi workers, and the subsequent
treatment by the ASHA’s and the ANM’s.* Children in this age group should be able to use

stimulating and engaging physical spaces that will help them learn. This phase of the child
(between 0-6 years) is the foundation for primary education, and so, a seamless transition from

Anganwadis to the schools will be ensured.
While specific objectives, strategies and monitoring mechanisms have been detailed in
subsequent sections, realizing these goals requires a strong institutional model to ensure delivery.

In order to so, the following factors have to be considered.

Enable Anganwadi workers to be effective

The role of the Anganwadi worker is essential for the success of early child care schemes.

I

Today, the AWW is tasked with both taking care of the needs of the child at the AWC as well as

to ensure that schemes targeting pregnant and lactating mothers, girl child (Bhagyalakshmi)
adolescents (Sabala) women empowerment (Stree Shakti) are effectively delivered. In order to

meet the ICDS’s primary goals a) of ensuring lower rates of malnutrition for children and b)
preschool education. Government of Karnataka proposes to ensure that it provides augment the
staffing pattern.

a) Each AWC will have three volunteers
b) One Anganwadi Worker whose primary responsibility is the child and his/her physical

and educational development. The said AWW will see that the AWC is run as per norms,
children enrolled attend regularly, nutrition supplements are given on time and as per
norms, imparting pre-school education to 3-6 year olds and ensuring a smooth transition

to primary schools. She will also be responsible for close monitoring of the children and

flagging developmental or other physical delays in the child’s growth to the ANMs and
ASHAs. This worker would ensure holistic development of the child.

c) The second AWW will be in charge of ensuring effective implementation of the schemes,

such as Bhagyalakshmi, Sabala and Stree Shakti i.e. all schemes which do not directly
concern the child enrolled in the AWC. This worker will be required to work with the

community in order to run awareness campaigns, conduct immunisation camps and

ensure dissemination of information. They will also ensure provision of supplementary
nutrition to adolescent girls, and monitor pregnant women and lactating mothers. They

will promote awareness of breastfeeding, work with the ANMs to provide children with
regular doses of vitamins and micronutrients and improve food distribution to BPL
families through PDS to ensure food security.

d) Anganwadi helper who will look after the administrative needs of the Anganwadi, such

as preparation of food and cleaning of the premises.

The Results Framework Document (RFD) prepared by the Department of Women and Child
Development will be used as the performance measurement framework for the AWWs and
AWCs.

Augment physical infrastructure at Anganwadis
At this time less than half of all Anganwadi buildings are located on land owned by the

government. It is essential that all Anganwadi centres have their own buildings as then the state

will be able to ensure that anganwadis are run as per norms i.e. with playgrounds, safe kitchens,
toiletes, safe water etc..
Recreation spaces for young children

Department of Women and Child Development will also work closely with Infrastiuctuie
departments such as Department of Municipal Administration, Department of Urban

Development and Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to ensure that
playgrounds close to anganwadis and schools are child friendly and outfitted with equipment

such as slides, seesaws etc.. Efforts will be made to ensure that parks are accessible to all
children including differently abled children.

Scale Anganwadis as centres for holistic development
While there have been Anganwadis setup across the state, there is a need to make these

Anganwadis learning centres that create a child friendly environment. NGOs and private
organizations have successfully adopted select Anganwadi centres to set up

child friendly

toilets, provide clean drinking water and safe play areas, as well as “child proofed cooking
areas”, and put up child friendly paintings. Such initiatives will be scaled to all Anganwadis.
To create the right learning opportunities in the Anganwadi centres linkages will be established

between the Anganwadis and the primary schools on learning objectives

Build a suitable infrastructure for early child care for children of working parents

In order to satisfy the demands of the working labour population, the state intends to convert one
anganwadi centre per community into a creche cum anganwadi centre. This conversion will be

on a need basis and should be run not by department set norms but by the demands of the
community, in order to provide the greatest assistance to the parents. The key purpose here
would be to ensure that children of poor working parents are provided a) nutrition b) care c)

access to healthcare and d) pre-school education.
Improving the local health services infrastructure
To improve health care infrastructure, primary health centres and community health centres will

be strengthened. At the PHC, provision will be made for new born corners. Essential institutional
support and trained personnel to handle concerns of the new born will be made available at all

PHC’s. Effort will also be made in this decade to provide specialised health care personnel at

CHC/PHC level to facilitate and enable early detection of disability amongst 0-6 year children.

Coordination between Department of Women and Child Development (ICDS) Department
of Health and Family Welfare (RCH) and Department of Disabled Welfare
Coordination between AWW, ANM and ASHA and VRWs will be strengthened. Administrative

guidelines will be issued to clearly delineate the roles and activities of the Accredited Social

Health Activist (ASHA), Anganwadi workers and Auxiliary mid Nurse (ANM) and VRWs to
ensure that there’s sufficient coordination and synergies across their individual lesponsibilities.
At the district and state level, a monthly meeting will be held jointly between Director

Reproductive & Child Health (RCH) and Joint Director, ICDS and Director, Disabled Welfare.
The agenda at these monthly meetings will be monitoring activities and strategies listed to
achieve the key performance indicators and goals jointly established in the State Action Plan,
2011-2020 by the above two departments.

Early detection of Disability

Early detection of disability is extremely important as it facilitates early care and rehabilitation

of the child. Screening of all newly horns will be made mandatory in a phased manner for all

institutional deliveries. Department of Health and Family Welfare will in conjunction with the
Department of Disabled Welfare issue norms and guidelines to ensure screening and early
identification of disabilities. Anganwadi workers (AWWs) will be trained on a periodic basis to

detect both developmental delays and physical development.
In the event of a child being identified as potentially having a disability by either the VRW,

ANM, AWW or PHC doctors, it will be the prime responsibility of the VRW to be the lead and
refer the child to for specialised attention to the developmental paediatrician.

In addition, Village Rehabilitation workers (VRWs) appointed by the Department of Disabled
Welfare will be trained to liaise with the ANMs, ASHAs and AWWs to enable registration of all

disabled children. AWWs at anganwadis will be trained to detect in the 0-6 age group signs of
physical or mental disability and immediately flag those for referral, fo the existing ieporting

format presented at the monthly meetings held at the block level (AWWs and ANMs and PHC
doctor are present) an additional column will be included to ensure that children with difficulties

are identified. VRWs will also be encouraged to create awareness amongst families of differently
abled children to bring them to anganwadis for regular check-ups.

Early intervention for children identified with disability
Early intervention and support is essential for the child to lead a full life. Government of

Karnataka will adopt the following strategy to ensure early intervention.

a) Department of Disabled Welfare will develop a comprehensive checklist of symptoms
and signs, which shall be used to identify disabilities ranging from sight, speech, auditory

to developmental delays.
b) Department of Disabled Welfare will develop training modules in close cooperation with
Department of Health and Family Welfare to train i) AWWs ii) ANMs iii) PHC doctors

iv) private practice paediatricians v) VRWs - to enable early detection and early

intervention
c)

Department of Disabled Welfare will create a resource directory containing the contact
numbers and addresses of agencies for the purpose of referral. Given that the number of

specialised referral service provider network is sparse at the district level, the State will
also establish a help line which can provide support to village level functionaries (VRWs,

AWWs, ANMs, PHC doctors) and to parents
d) Government of Karnataka shall also endeavour to set up early intervention centres/cells at

the Taluk Level. These cells shall be established at Taluk level hospitals. These cells will
be staffed with personnel who are trained by physiotherapists, occupational therapists and

speech therapists to help children with disabilities.

Recognising that disability treatment is a vast area, which cannot be encompassed by a single
practitioner, the Department of Disability Welfare shall also establish links with different

voluntary organisations and NGO’s having expertise in the treatment, rehabilitation and care of
children with special needs to develop training modules, checklists to enable village level
functionaries to identify and provide support to the child and to conduct training programmes.

Standards and norms for balwadis and creches :

ICDS and DWCD will develop and issue standard norms which will be adopted by Department
of Labour to conduct inspections of creches run at factories, construction sites and other work
places mandated by the law ; and other State Departments (Municipal Corporations,...) running

creches and child care centres.





The Department of labour will submit a quarterly report to the Department of Women and Child
Development which will include indicators such as inspections undertaken, and play material

available, learning material available, nutrition given etc..

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Karnataka State Action Plan for children 2011-20

Overview and Vision
Children [6 - 14 years]

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Children [6 - 14 years]
Vision of the state
In addressing the needs of the children in the age group of 6 - 14, the state will continue to keep
its focus on providing quality and accessible primary and secondary education for all children.

To ensure universal education, education must become the preferred alternative for the child.

And in order to ensure the same, the government has to address all influencing factors in order to
enable the child to choose education.

Government of Karnataka’s education policy aims to:
Empower a child to grow into a socially responsible citizen, who is able to leverage



livelihood opportunities available to her/him.


Provide education which is in keeping with the socio-cultural milieu of the child

To meet these broad principles it envisions providing every child, in the state


Easy Access to quality and holistic education in his / her neighbourhood, in schools equipped

with essential infrastructure


An inclusive model of education that keeps in mind the special needs and challenges of

children, while providing quality education.


Access to essential healthcare services in his / her neighbourhood.



A social infrastructure that provides the child access to creative, sports and recreational

spaces both in the school and in the community.


Proactive support for children living in difficult circumstances through financial and other
relevant assistance to his / her family and appropriate engagement with the child.



Safeguards from risks such as child pornography, child trafficking and sexual abuse crimes;
and can reach out to a trusted entity in the local community for rehabilitation and care.

Specifically, the state will focus its efforts in ensuring retention and reducing drop outs

for all children, with a specific focus on children from families belonging to socially
disadvantaged caste groups such as Scheduled caste, Scheduled Tribes and Minorities
and economically weaker sections.

Mentoring Schools: An initiative to enable public involvement
School Nurturing Programme introduced by the Department of Public Instruction is an
attempt by the government to actively involve the community in bettering the quality of
education in the state. The programme allows ‘nurturers’ to adopt a school from a

comprehensive list and engage with the school through various activities, such as
training teachers and students, developing facilities such as libraries and labs,

undertaking construction activities in schools etc. The programme aims to achieve the
goal of providing quality education to all children in the state while tackling challenges

faced by the government in implementing this goal.

Existing schemes and policies
The Department of Public instruction aims to equip children of the State with specified
knowledge, skills and values to enable them to become good human beings and productive,
socially responsible citizens and to achieve excellence in whatever they do. The policies of the
department work towards universal enrollment, improvement of infrastructure, making the
learning process more child centric, and involving the local community in school management.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

The SSA is a programme that envisions universal access to education from I to VIII standards to
all children up to 14 years, provision of education of a satisfactory quality with emphasis on life
skills and meaningful schooling, with due concerns for equity and regional paiity. The

programme also aims to involve the community up to the village level and especially local
government institutions in management of schools.

In order to ensure all out of school children are brought into the purview of formal schooling,

the following strategies are adopted:

1. 12 months non residential bridge courses:

a. Feeder schools are run in habitations where children have to walk more than 1
K.M to attend school, and where a regular school cannot be opened because of

fewer children

(less than 10 children in a habitation). Feeder schools were

opened in habitations where the community opted for a centre rather than
transportation facility.
b. Transport facilities to children who do not have lower primary schooling facilities

within a radius of 1 km and upper primary schooling facilities within 3 K.M have
been provided.
c.

12 months NRBC: are opened for OOSC who need longer duration of bridge

course.

d. Madrasas: Children who are studying in Madrasas are covered under this substrategy.

2. 12 months residential bridge schools: Under this, 2 programmes are conducted

a.

12 months RBC- provides residential facility for out of school children who are in

acute poverty.

b. Ashakirana centers are residential in nature, with an aim to reduce drop-outs for
various reasons. Hostel facility is provided to children at schools/community

halls/public buildings. It is mostly run by NGOs with the co-operation of Head
Master and SDMC Educational Volunteers.

To address concerns related to children dropping out due to migration of parents, the following

strategies are adopted under SSA:
1. Tent schools are opened for children who have migrated along with their parents. In

places where parents stay in make shift shelters near their places of work, tent schools are
opened. These schools have been opened all over the state to provide bridge courses.

After successful completion of the bridge course, students are admitted to nearby schools

in the standards appropriate to their age and attainment levels. In case a child moves
during the academic year, she would be provided with migration cards. The Head

Teacher of the school of the out migrating school uses these cards to declare the results.
These cards can also be used to get admission in new tent schools.

2. 6 months seasonal residential bridge course is provided for the potential drop out
children due to their parent’s migration. The school serves as a hostel for such children.

These children attend formal school.

Other strategies adopted by SSA in Karnataka in the pursuit of the goal of ensuring universal
access to education include:

1. Special enrolment drives are held to pursue the parents of the out of school children, the
non enrolled drop outs to enroll them into schools. The parents are made aware of the

importance of education at these drives.
2. Mobile schools: is a programme undertaken especially for children living id slums of

Bangalore City- in convergence with Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. At
present,

there

are

8

buses

which

are

modified

as

classrooms.

Free

text

books/slates/notebooks/uniforms/midday meals and play materials are provided to
children in these mobile schools.

In order to ensure the education provided is of good quality, the following schemes are relevant:

1. SSA has been supporting the initiative Karnataka School Quality

Assessment Organization (KSQAO). KSQAO is part of the state department

of school education. Under the initiative, the quality of education in schools

across the state is assessed through a programme of competency based testing

I

of students in government and aided schools throughout the state.
2. Teacher training: The state guidelines for training have been prepared and

issued by the Directorate of State Educational Research and Training, in

consultation

with

SSA,

keeping

in

mind

the

DIETs.

To understand the complex dynamic of community participation and its impact on quality

education, SSA has implemented a pilot project Namma Shale with financial support from Azim

Premji foundation and administrative support from the Government of Karnataka.

Provision of Quality Medical Services

Suvarna Arogya Chaitanya , is a scheme to provide free medical services to school children. This
is a comprehensive health check up campaign for all school children studying in the 1st to 10th

standards. It has been piloted for the first time in the country to conduct annual medical

examinations of nearly one crore Public and Private school children followed by medical care at
both governement and private hospitals. In case of severe complications in health, surgical care

is also provided. Health check Up cards have been printed by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and
Transportation charges are being provided by Akshara Deora. For the years 2008-11, 5769

surgeries have been carried out at the cost of 23 crores, which is provided for by the NHRM
fund.

1

Provision of Emergency Ambulance Services : Arogya Kavacha

GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute is a not for profit organisation formed to

run Emergency Management Services under Public Private Partnership framework.
The commencement of GVK EMRI Karnataka happened with a signing of an MOU with the
Government of Karnataka on the 14th of August 2008 and the ‘M 08 Service” was launched on the

1st Nov 2008 in Bangalore. It was launched under the Arogya Kavacha Scheme in partnership

with the Department Of Health and Family Welfare. In the 2 years since the commencement of
the scheme, 517 ambulances have been deployed and are operational, which cover all 30

districts. Almost 20 lakh calls have been attended, out of which there have been 10 lakh medical

emergencies and 4 lakh pregnancy related cases. This initiative has significantly contributed to
reducing maternal and infant mortality rate.

Scholarships and financial assistance for education
Incentive Scholarships from I to IV standard students

The main aim of this scheme is to minimize the dropout rate among SC students at the primary
education level. Each child is given an incentive of Rs. 75 per annum. All SC student^ studying
in Government/recognized/aided schools are eligible for the scholarship. A list of SC children is
prepared by the concerned school master/headmistress and submitted to the Taluk Social Welfare

Officer for sanction. The cheque will be sent to concerned schools for disbursement. After start
of the academic year, the application for scholarship can be made through the school.

Pre-matric Scholarships
These are provided by the Department of Social Welfare to students who study from 6th to 10th
standards. There is no income limit for the award of the scholarships. Rs. 75 per annum is
awarded to students up to 7th standard, and Rs. 100 per annum is given to high school students.

Applications for the award of pre-matric scholarships are obtained from Taluk Social Welfare
officer and distributed to SC students by the head master/mistress at school. The dully filled

scholarship forms are collected from students and submitted for sanction to the Taluk Social
Welfare Officer. After the scrutiny, the scholarships are sanctioned and the cheque along with

the list is sent to the school, where the scholarships are disbursed in the presence of the parents

of the students. In order to be eligible for this scholarship, SC students from 5th to 10th standard
need to fulfill the following conditions:

a. Students should not reside in any Government or Government aided hostel.
b. They must not be recipients of any other scholarship other than the merit
scholarship.

c. The scholarship applications must be filled in the required format.
Merit scholarships
In order to inculcate a competitive spirit among SC children for scoring better marks in exams,

Merit scholarships are given in addition to pre-matric scholarship. The students have to fulfill the
following conditions to be eligible:
a. Obtained not less than 60% marks in the annual examination of the previous class.

b. The annual income of parents is not considered for merit scholarship. In middle

school, the amount given is Rs. 75 p.a. From 8th to 10th standard, Rs. 100 per annum
is given. The amount given is in addition to the pre-matric Scholarship.
c. The student with good merit in annual exams must be recommended by the head

master/head mistress of the concerned school for the scholarship.

After the commencement of a new Academic year, the merit scholarship for the previous year

will be sanctioned based on the performance in the exams, of the concerned student.

Pre-matric Scholarships to the children of those parents who are engaged in un-clean
occupation
This is a centrally sponsored scheme where 50% grants come from the GOI and 50% is borne by

the State Govt. All students whose parents are engaged in unclean occupations are eligible for
scholarships under this scheme. The selection of the children whose parents are engaged in

unclean occupation is made separately by the school headmaster and sent to the Taluk Social
Welfare Officer for sanctioning. Children who reside in the government or aided hostels are also

eligible for scholarship. The following are the details of the scholarships:
Day scholars:
1. Class I to V - Rs. 40.00 per month for 10 months.
2. Class VI to VIII - Rs. 60.00 per month for 10 months.

I
3. Class IX to X - Rs. 75.00 per month for 10 months.

Hostellers:
1. Class III to VIII - Rs. 300. Per month for 10 months per student.
2. Class IX to X - Rs. 300.00 per month for 10 months per student.

An ad hoc grant of Rs. 550/ is given to day scholars and Rs. 600/- to hostellers.

Schemes for encouraging holistic development

Hoysala and Keladi Chennama Award are provided by the Department of Women and Child

Welfare to two boys and two girls from every district in the age group of 6- 14, who display
extraordinary courage in saving lives of others. Cash prize of Rs. 10,000 and citation to each

awardee and a scholarship of Rs. 2,000 till the completion of school education are provided.

Going forward: Key areas of focus
Access to quality and holistic education

The state government is committed to ensure that every child has access to education. Due to
efforts over the last few years, today majority of the children have access to schools within 1-3
KM in their neighbourhood. In addition, schemes that provide free uniforms, books and other

accessories have made education more affordable and provided an incentive for parents to send
their children to school. The State will continue to constantly endeavour to improve quality of

education and infrastructure.


Focus on reading, writing and arithmetic
As a minimum prerequisite of education, it is important that the children have strong capabilities

in reading, writing and arithmetic since they act as a foundation for further learning Studies (

Reference?) on the ground highlight that children who have not acquired basic competencies in
these skills face challenges in pursuing further education or gaining employment.

Efforts by key NGOs aim to highlight and address this gap in the education among children of all
age groups. The state is committed to providing a scalable solution, in collaboration with local

civil society groups, private sector and NGOs, to address this problem across all districts. In line

with this. Government of Karnataka is working towards institutionalizing appropriate metrics to

constantly monitor the quality of educational attainment of children on key skills KSQA is an
effort in this direction. The next decade will see a greater emphasis on quality education
Improving the existing school infrastructure

Supportive infrastructure is required for imparting quality education. Sufficient physical spaces
such as classrooms are required for children to be comfortable, and engage with each other .

Recognising this, efforts will be strengthened to provide classrooms, access to books through

libraries, , access to computers so that children can broaden their horizons beyond the confines
of the prescribed syllabus.

Improving Quality of Education: A NGO-Governmcnt partnership
Karnataka Teaming Partnership6* brings together the various stakeholders involved in
primary education to improve the quality of schools and education in Karnataka. The
Partnership intends to achieve this by teaming up with NGOs working in relevant fields

such as education, health, nutrition, using the data generated by these NGOs to assess

the current status of education in Karnataka and use this assessment to galvanize the
community and ultimately the government, to bring about changes in the existing

system. Improving the existing school infrastructure

Focus on Life skills
World Health Organization (WHO) defines Life Skills are as "abilities for adaptive and positive

behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of
everyday life." Education has a role to play in not just improving the child’s aptitude but also

ensuring that the child grows up as a responsible adult who is able to face and overcome life’s
challenges.

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Today, various NGOs have adopted and partnered with government schools to complement the
existing curriculum with life skills covering value education, character building through sports
and language skills for better communication and clarity of thought. These organizations also

emphasize the importance of work ethic, taking responsibilities at home and within the

community and how experiential learning is equally important.
It is essential that such skills are institutionalized so that it is scalable and is delivered across

schools in the state. The state will sensitize its teachers and explore partnerships with local non­
governmental organizations that can support in complementing the teachers and aid in delivery

of this education.
Focus on capacity building of teachers
Achieving improvements in quality of education is not possible without focusing on the teachers

who impart the education today. The state will focus on providing trainings and sensitization
programmes to teachers to ensure that they are able to identify specific needs of individual
children and address the same. The teachers will also be trained in the use of computers and

other multimedia technologies so that they could use the same in enhancing the quality of

delivery. While the role of NGOs and other civil society organizations in complementing the

education delivery in schools is welcome, the state shall formulate a clear engagement model so
that both the teachers and the organizations can work together in order to improve the overall
quality of education.

Support inclusivity in education

Addressing school dropouts and lateral entries
As part of state’s efforts to end child labour and ensure universal education, there’s special

attention to onboard children who have dropped out of school or have not been part of the
schooling system. These children are at a disadvantage since they have missed out on valuable
years of school education. The state is committed to ensuring that the children are enrolled in age

appropriate levels of the school education.

In order to be able to do so, special attention will be taken to make sure that the children are
provided extra support and care in the mainstreaming process that will help adapt to the needs of

the school education. The state also acknowledges that the challenges are not purely academic.

Care also will be taken to ensure that the child is able to adapt to the system both emotionally
and psychologically.

Systematic joint-departmental reviews will be conducted to monitor

retention of children, particularly children belonging to disadvantaged groups such as Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Minorities. Government of Karnataka will use the findings of key

research studies conducted by V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, National Institute of Public
Education (NIEPA), State Council of Education, Research and Training to inform its policy and
formulate strategies to help reduce drop outs and in mainstreaming of children in school. These
studies have pointed to a) the need for mentors and counsellors in schools to help children adapt

to the learning environment b) the need for career counselling in schools to help children from
especially disadvantaged communities find their feet in the educational system. The process has

already been institutionalised, and will be scaled up in the next decade.
In addition, efforts will be made to ensure that such children are able to use alternative

accreditation models (such as NIOS) to formalize their learning. The state shall facilitate and

simplify access to such accreditation models to the children.

Child Labour Rescue and Rehabilitation : Research informing Policy

Analysis of a child labour rescue operation by EQUATIONS and APSA9: The report,
“Rescuing Child Labourers: An Analysis of the Operation Undertaken to Rescue

Children Trafficked to Labour in the Jewellery Units of Karnataka”, prepared by two
NGOs; APSA and EQUATIONS contains a detailed analysis of a child labour rescue
operation involving a situation of inter-state trafficking. The report breaks down the
rescue operation into seven stages (planning, rescue operation, immediate post-rescue,

short term care, legal Intervention, the journey home and post-return situation) and
analyzes the planning that went into each of these stages and the manner in which the
operation and rescue and rehabilitation was conducted. Interviews with the rescued
children and families are used to construct a comprehensive picture of the socio­

economic context that contributes to child labour and the psychological states of the
children and the families. Importantly, the report analyses the various lacunae in each
stage of the rescue operation and gives suggestions for rectifying each of these thus,

constructing a picture of what a thorough and effective rescue operation would involve.

This is now being considered for adoption by the Department of Labour, Government of
Karnataka.

Ensuring inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools:

The Government Of Karnataka acknowledges that it is essential to facilitate integration
of children with disabilities into mainstream education in order to prevent segregation

of the child. The state will ensure that resources are targeted at existing mainstream

educational facilities in order to develop their capacity to include disabled students.
Mainstream education shall be adapted to meet the requirements of each child, so that

persons with disability may avail of an inclusive education in ther own community. The
state will follow the strategies detailed below in order to bring about structural changes

in the educational system to facilitate this objective:

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1.

Efforts will be made to integrate children with motor handicaps and other mild handicaps

into the mainstream classroom education, so as to provide the child with an inclusive holistic
experience.

2.

Efforts will be made to design, modify and adapt curriculum and teaching-learning material

(e.g. provide large print material) according to a set of standardised norms.
3.

Systems of examinations will be implemented that help the child overcome the disadvantage

due to the nature and extent of disability including

permitting use of technology and

adaptations (E.g. calculators) and to provide for flexibility in qualifying marks and pass
percentages for children with severe learning difficulties, mental

4.

The State will

u dation etc

promote total communication including augmentative & alternative

communication methods in different environments with the use of individualized way of

speaking and listening, using non verbal or metaphorical forms for communication,
especially in case of people with autism, deatblindness, cerebral-palsy, mental illness etc.

5.

Use of technology targeted towards the needs of children with disabilities will be

encouraged to complement and aid the existing teaching methods.
6.

Efforts will be made to see that schools provide an environment to the child that is disability
friendly. As a first step, barrier free environments (ramps in schools, appropriate toilets,

furniture and sports facilities) will be created in schools, particularly in new schools.
7.

Access to the school will be facilitated through appropriate means of transport.

Providing specialised educational support to children with disabilities:

The state recognises that it is not ideal to place all children with disabilities in a regular
education classroom. The state will therefore attempt to institute a system by which children with

major disabilities will be afforded the opportunity to study in specialised schools where
programs will be developed in order to support their specific educational needs, and allow

him/her to learn to the best of her ability. These schools will have a team of multidisciplinary

experts, such as a physical therapist, a child development expert, an occupational expert, and a
speech and language expert among others.

These schools will provide transportation and

developmental, corrective and other support services that the child needs to benefit from

education.

Training of Resource Persons and Teachers.
The state shall provide trained and motivated teachers for the implementation of effective

inclusion. Translating policy into practice will depend on the continued development of skills
and confidence of teachers and support staff in meeting the diverse range of children’s needs.

The state shall support

professional development of teachers and other support staff in pre

service and in service training programmes.

Special orientation for resource personnel and

managing staff (CRC/BRC/ lERTs) shall be organized, for capacity building.

Adequate provisions shall be made through DIET at district level, through BRC at block level,
through CRC at cluster level and through IERT at school level to provide resource support in
terms of trained personnel, educational materials, equipments (aids and appliances) and

therapeutic support. Apart from lERT’s who act as consultants and visit schools on a weekly
basis provision shall be made for two full time resource teachers at every school to look after the

special needs of the children

Information cells shall be set up at a CRC and a BRC level, which shall provide a comprehensive
database of the needs and requirements for every type of disability, for the resource personnel to
draw upon.

Addressing children with learning difficulties

The state acknowledges that children with learning difficulties need special attention care.
Today, most of these children are part of the system unidentified and often targeted for poor
performance. Hence, it is important to identify the children with learning difficulties as soon as

possible and provide them the required care to help them cope with the difficulties.
While doing so, the state will ensure that the system - including the teachers - is sensitized to
address the needs of such children and involve the right psychological expert in order to ensure

that the right measures are taken.

Proactive support to children in difficult circumstances
Opportunities for families to avoid child labour

Existing studies have highlighted that the key reasons for children being pulled out of school are
financial constraints and the need for elder siblings to take care of younger ones in the family.
Hence in order to address this problem proactively, the state will provide incentives to families in
need that send their children to school. Financial assistance will be provided to families to

encourage them to send children to school beyond class V. In case of elder siblings in the house

who are eligible to work, appropriate vocational training will be provided that will help the

siblings gain employment and support the financial needs of the family.
In case of younger siblings, the schools will be equipped with creches so that the children can

leave their younger siblings in the creches while they attend school.

Opportunities for ch ildren from socially and culturally disadvantaged groups
Studies and data point to the fact that more than 60% of children belonging to scheduled caste,
scheduled tribe and minority groups drop out of schools. The State will address this problem pro­

actively. It will provide tuition support, financial incentives and counselling support to ensure

retention of children in schools. It will also provide soft skill and language support to these
children with a view to enabling them achieve success in their lives.

Ensure Child rights

The rights of the child must be ensured not just in the family but in the community at large. The
physical and psychological safety of the child will be ensured. Civil society groups in Karnataka
are amongst the pioneers who have demonstrated that child representation in policy making i.e.
taking into account children’s views — results in better articulation and formulation of
programmes. Government of Karnataka also acknowledges the need to involve children in the

planning process. Public hearings with children have been effective in creating awareness and
reducing child labour; and in making known the existing state of juvenile and care homes. The

state will as a policy in the next decade facilitate and encourage such forms of child
participation.

Support for Sports and Arts

The state recognizes the role of sports and recreation in the overall development of the child. As
defined in the Article 31 of the UNICEF Convention on the rights of the child, all children have
the right to play. The freedom and space to indulge in creative ails and sport are major

components of the definition of play. The state is committed to provide the same to the child.

The Department of youth service and sports, department of public instruction, municipalities and
district administration will provide the required infrastructure and physical spaces both in the

school, as playgrounds, and in the community, as parks, for sports and recreation activities. It
will ascertain that these spaces are lively, child-friendly and are equipped with the essential
facilities to engage the child. In addition, it will encourage the pursuit of creative arts in schools

and ensure that the students are provided opportunities to appreciate and learn the local forms of
art.

The state government has mandated sports and arts as an integral part of the school curriculum so
that it is treated as an essential pail of pedagogical activities. In addition, the state will increase
the number of qualified teachers who can help children hone their skills in ails and sports. The

state acknowledges that the sports and arts are not purely limited to recreation, and provide the
required support, financially and through central infrastructure, to aspiring artists and sportsmen

and sportswomen. Appropriate channels and events will be organized to identify dnd foster
talent, irrespective of the socio-economic background of the child.


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Access to healthcare services

Improving nutritional and health status of children: The early years of schooling are
crucial for the physical and psychological growth of the child. Without adequate nutrition, the

child will not be able to learn well, and make the most of these crucial years. Provision of hot

mid day meals in schools help address this need, while also providing an incentive to children to
enrol in, and continue to attend school.
The state will ensure that the mid-day meals of good quality are provided regularly in all schools.
For overall well being of the child, good health is of vital importance. For the achievement of

this objective, focus will be on promoting awareness on aspects such as cleanliness, nutrition and

sanitation.In terms of nutritional supplements, iron supplements are being provided along with

mid-day deals to Anganwadi children every alternate day and Vitamin A and deworming tablets
are given every 6 months. These benefits should be extended to high school students. There will
also be a thrust on improved access to health care services. In line with this, provision of clean

drinking water, clean toilets and effective waste management will be strengthened in schools and

in communities.

Suvarna Arogya Chaitanya - improved access to specialised healthcare to identify disabilities

Provision of Quality Mid-Day Meals : A Public-Private Partnership

Akshayapatra7", the mid-day meal scheme as run by the Akshayapatra Foundation uses
technology and awareness of the regional food habits to make mid-day meals healthy,

nutritious and enjoyable. The food sent to schools is freshly cooked in Akshayapatra
kitchens every morning and transported in specially insulated vans which ensure that

the food is at least 60 deg C when it reaches the school. Further, the Foundation
frequently collects feedback about the food from the children and incorporates changes

in the menu. The menu also changes every week, hence ensuring the food does not get
repetitive and boring. Further the Foundation ensures that the food prepared is in
with the food habits in the region.
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Intervention in schools

School also acts as an effective channel to address the overall health of the child. Hence, in
addition to the regular meals, children will also be provided the required supplementary nutrition

to ensure children receive the necessary vitamins and minerals. Regular medical camps will be
conducted in schools to constantly monitor the health of the children. In addition, there will be a
strong focus on physical development as part of the school curriculum.

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Karnataka State Action Plan for children 2011-20

Overview and Vision
Elder Adolescents [14
years]

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Elder Adolescents [14 - 18 Years]
Vision of the state
Adolescence is a crucial period as it marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. There are
several physical, psychological and emotional challenges that are faced by an adolescent, At this
age, adolescents are exposed to various risks such as

the risk of early pregnancy and

childbearing, gender discrimination, sexual abuse and exploitation, STI s/HlV/AIDs. It is also at
this stage that several children make the choice between education and employment. Ill informed

choices at this stage may lead to weak job creation and eventual socio-economic exclusion. In

addition, while adolescents have by passed the age of the highest mortality, their continued
physical well being depends on the availability of adequate nutrition, micro nutrients in diet and
access to health services.

So, the Karnataka Government envisions provide to all adolescents in Karnataka an environment

in which they can make informed choices. The following are the areas of focus to ensure the
overall well being of the adolescent:


Improved access to, and quality of post-matric education.



Access to relevant vocational education that ensures employability.



Awareness of potential health risks such as substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.



Awareness about sexual behaviour and reproductive health.



Access to safe drinking water, sanitational facilities and health facilities



Access to life skills training to build needed competencies for social development.



Increased participation of children from especially disadvantaged communities such as
Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Minorities in post matriculation education and

formal vocational education.

it

Existing schemes and policies
Pre-vocational education
Department of higher education provides pre-vocational education in over 900 schools in

Karnataka. Adolescents are allowed to choose a vocation based subject for their XII standard
exams.
Industrial Training Institutions:
ITTs run by the Department of Employment and Training now recognise that there is a need to

provide vocational education to adolescents. Many pilots using the modular employability skill

training (MES) curricula are in operation. ITIs are now also mandated to provide post-training
job placements. Craftsmen training is also implemented through the I fl s, wherein skills training

is provided in various vocational trades. Training is provided in 43 engineering and 24 non

engineering trades. Successful trainees are awarded the national trade certificate and are
classified as semi skilled craftsmen.

Community polytechnic
Department of Technical Education has set up community polytechnics, to benefit the poorer

sections in rural and urban areas. These Polytechnics have been set up at taluk level wherein
adolescents are provided locally relevant vocational training opportunities such as mobile repair,
electronic goods repair. These diploma programmes are available for adolescents who have

passed X and XII students.

Vocational education scholarships for minorities, SC/ST. Modular Employability Skill

training
Government of Karnataka has recently instituted schemes through which adolescents from
excluded and minority communities can access training and certification through the MES.

Training cost as well as scholarships is provided to trainees.

National Institute of Open Schooling
This is the only system that is providing Open Basic Education and Pre-Vocational Courses and

Vocational courses. Around 60 vocational education courses in agriculture, business, commerce,
engineering, technology, para medical, health, applied sciences and social service sectors have
been introduced
Finishing Schools

Finishing schools are run by specific departments of the Government and NGO’s to provide
training in language, communication and general life skills to adolescents. Soft skills training of
this nature is essential for employability today.
Special Coaching classes

Department of Social Welfare conducts special coaching classes for SC, ST and OBC children to
enable them to compete on an equal footing in grade XII.
Sabala
A recent scheme of the scheme of the GOI Department of Women and Child Development.

Sabala aims to address the multi-dimensional concerns of adolescent girl children in the age
group of 11-18 years. The project which has been implemented through the platform of ICDS, is

functioning on a pilot basis in 9 districts of Karnataka . I he girls would be empowered by

improvement in their nutritional and health status and upgrading home, life and vocational skills.
It also aims at equipping the girls on family welfare, health, hygiene and information and
guidance on existing public services, along with mainstreaming out of school girls into formal or

non-formal education. The main objectives of the scheme are :

1) Enable self development and empowerment of AG's
2) Improve their nutrition and health statusSpread awareness amond them about health,

hygiene, nutrition. Adolescent reproductive and sexual health, and family and child

care.
3) Upgrade their home based skills, life skills and vocational skills.

4) Mainstream out of schools AG’s into formal/non formal education.

5) Inform and guide them about existing public school services.

Kishori Shakti Yojana is a scheme under ICDS is another scheme that focuses particularly on

the needs of the adolescent girl child. In 9 districts in Karnataka the KSY scheme and NSAG
have been merged into one scheme, whereas in the rest of the districts the KSY scheme is solely

operational.(Details have been provided in the girl child section)
The Integrated Programme for Street Children of the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment seeks to rescue and rehabilitate street children.

Integrated Child Protection Scheme is a comprehensive scheme which brings under its

umbrella the existing child protection schemes of the GOI in order to provide a holistic approach
to the care and protection of children.

This scheme proposes to safeguard children by strengthening families and preventing children
becoming homeless through provision of family services and counseling. They also piovide
support to children already outside the mainstream by creating a safety net foi them, beginning
from emergency outreach services to final rehabilitation and reunion with their families thereby

preventing avoidable institutionalization.
Under the scheme specialized programs provide services to the more vulnerable categoiies of

children by capacity building of families, community, NGOs, local bodies, police judiciary and
other concerned departments of State Government and undertaking research, advocacy and

spreading awareness about child related issues. 1 hey also initiate any other need based

specialized innovative services including child guidance and counseling especially to combat
drug abuse, HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse.

Scheme For Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse
Grants are provided by the Government of India to run de addiction clinics herein counselling.
Treatment and rehabilitation facilities are provided. To create awareness about the ill effects of

drugs and alcohol dependence, awareness camps are organised for the general public.

Voluntary organisations having experience in the field, good basic infrastructure and financial

background are eligible for financial assistance. The GO1 has sanctioned 31 deaddiction
rehabilitation centres out of which 30 are functioning in the state.

Targeting Adolescents : Vasantha Agaman and Sneha Clinics
Adolescents constitute about 22% of the population. It is the responsibility of the Governement
Of India to provide them with information, skills, health services, counseling as well as a safe

and supportive environment.
It was found that a large number of the female adolescent population are at risk through early

sexal activity, pregnancies, STI’s etc. The various issues related to the maternal health of the
adolescent were also analysed and it was found that, overall access and utilisation of sei vices in

terms of Ante Natal Check ups, MTP. Spacing of Pregnancies, ST1/RTI, and information about
HIV/AIDs deserved attention in the adolescent group.
Hence GOK launched the ARSH programme last year, in which 12 districts were selected for
implementation in the state. In the first phase. Medical officer and Jr Health Asst and Sr Health

Asst training has been provided. Awareness creating programme for the community at large
through All India Radio, every week on Saturday morning at 7.15 AM where 15 minute radio

lessons (in drama form) are broadcasted throughout Karnataka as a part of the Vasantha Agaman
Program
Services are provided regularly in the OPD at all PHC/CHC/TH. In addition on every Thursday
between 3 and 5 , Special Adolescent Clinics are conducted under the SNEHA Clinic program in
all PHC’s, Taluks, Dist Hospitals. Counselling services are also provided at this time.

Going forward: Key areas of focus
Improve quality of high school education
The Government of Karnataka has constantly endeavoured to provide quality education to

children at all levels. Increasing access to. and quality of high school education has been of great
importance to the Government. Through various departmental initiatives, efforts to impiove

access and quality of the education provided at the high school level will be continued. Good

infrastructure will be ensured in all high school, keeping in mind particularly the needs of girls
and differently-abled children.

The State recognises the need for physical recreation to ensure the holistic development of the
adolescent. Therefore, the state undertakes that adequate provisions shall be made for games,

sports and recreation in schools and other institutions. Open spaces shall be piovided in the
vicinity of schools to serve as playgrounds and shall be equipped with the appropriate

infrastructure and equipment to enable the children to be able to learn and participate in sports.
Curriculum shall be developed for physical education and trainers will be present in order to
ensure effective implementation of the same. There shall also be access to facilities ielating to

cultural and arts.

The State will also ensure that all children

girls and boys - from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled

Tribe and Minority families will be provided additional support and soft skill training with a

view to ensuring that these children are able to complete high school education and aspire to

achieve their best in society.
Ensure focus on vocational education

The Government of Karnataka acknowledges that vocational education is of great importance in
order to enhance individual employability and reduce the mismatch between demand and supply

of skilled manpower. Effective vocational training programs will go a long way towards skilling
adolescents and ensure that they become responsible adults.
Vocational Training is especially suited for adolescents who either a) because of inclination
towards vocational education or b) for financial reasons may want to take up employment at the

earliest and may provide an alternative to those pursuing higher education without particular

interest or purpose
Currently, the need for pre-vocational and vocational education is being addressed through high

schools, polytechnics and ITI s. The Government will upgrade facilities and equipment, attiact

new staff and develop new curricula and materials in order to cater to the needs of the industry.

The greatest need of the hour is to establish a policy framework that will ensure standardisation
of education, institute a competency based skill testing, and maintain the quality of the

institution. In the next decade, in line with the Government of India s policy on vocational

education and skill training, the Government of Karnataka will undertake the following steps.
School Level

a) integrate pre-vocational education from VIII in schools
b) equip schools with sufficient infrastructure and personnel (teachers, counsellors) to provide

pre-vocational education

c) coordinate with polytechnics and ITIs to streamline curriculum with a view to creating a
strong foundation
create awareness amongst parents and students on the availability of this stream and increase

social acceptance of vocational education amongst the community

Polytechnic and ITIs
a)

Increase the number of courses being provided

b) Implement multi skill competency based trainings.
c) Implement special programs for adolescents with disabilities
d) Equip adolescents with the project planning and designing skills which will enable them

to start micro enterprises.

e) Improve the access to vocation education

0

Link vocational education to jobs in the market

g) Provide residential hostels accommodation for adolescents who move from the villages to
urban areas for vocational training.

Institutional level
a) Work closely with market and industry bodies to ensure marketable vocational

education courses are available in schools, polytechnics and ITIs

Finishing schools
Apart from technical knowledge, ability to communicate effectively and people skills are
necessary to be successful in any professional field. Finishing schools set up by various NGO’s

and specific departments of the Government are addressing this need today.

In the subsequent years, greater support will be provided to NGO’s running finishing schools, to
ensure all adolescents are provided the required soft skills. The target group here would be all
children - girls and boys - from Scheduled Caste. Scheduled Tribe and Minority families

Value and Life Education
Many children who are out of school have to enter work force and become productive by
earning. Girls suffer the burden of sharing household work and are confronted with matrimony

and child bearing while still in their teens. There is a real need for imparting life skills i.e

inculcating in adolescents the ability for adaptive and positive behaviour to enable them to deal
with the challenges of everyday life. The state recognises this and shall provide the reliable and

appropriate information, guidance and counselling on issues of concern.

Government Of Karnataka shall institute life skills modules into the curriculums of schools and
vocational training institutes in order to inculcate within adolescents the skills of creative and
critical thinking, effective communication. Interpersonal skills, problem solving abilities, and the

ability to handle stress and tension. These shall be communicated through experiential learning

and games and debates.

Create awareness against HIV/AIDS

Government of Karnataka recognises that HIV/AIDS is a matter of serious concern in the
adolescent age group, as crucial behavioural choices are undertaken in this period. Awareness
programmes on these aspects have been held through the departments of health and education, in

collaboration with other non-governmental organisations. Along with strengthening of these

campaigns, the Government will leverage the mass media, to reach out to all sections of the

adolescents, to spread awareness among them on safe sexual practices and HIV/AIDS.
Disseminate Safe Menstrual Hygiene Practices

Menstrual Hygiene is an oft overlooked and neglected aspect of women's development. 1 he
gender unfriendly school structure, as well as lack of adequate menstrual protection lead to large

numbers of drop outs among adolescent girls.

1 he government of Karnataka recognizes that

there is a need to improve the reproductive health of girls and women by increasing the

accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability of sanitary napkins and other protection
materials for menstrual hygiene.

A pilot program has been established to distribute sanitary napkins to adolescent girls (10-18
years) and women in BPL families in 9 districts currently. Plans have been made to scale it up to
all 30 districts. Under this program, sanitary napkins are supplied directly to the districts, post

which they are distributed through the Female Health Workers and ASHAs to the girls/women at
a nominal fee. The Government will also leverage the Self Help Groups, both as manufactories

and as distributors..

Create awareness against substance abuse
Substance abuse is a matter of serious concern in the adolescent age group. Peer pressure can

have a negative effect on many adolescents leading to substance abuse, which can have a
negative effect on their health and overall well being in the long run. Karnataka has been

conducting various awareness programs, in collaboration with NGO's and civil society
organisations throughout the state to educate adolescents about the harmful effects of tobacco,

alcohol and drugs. However, this is an area where constant and ongoing campaigns are necessary

in order to ensure that all adolescents are aware of the harmful effects substance abuse can have

on their health, finances, family and overall well being. Recognising this, campaigns will be held
on a continuous basis, both through street plays and using the mass media, in all districts of the

state to educate adolescents about the problems caused by substance abuse.
Focussed intervention will be planned for at risk adolescents



Working adolescents



Adolescents living on the streets



Adolescents in High school, polytechnics and it is

Sex Education:

Government of Karnataka mandates the need for sex education for adolescents (10-18 years). It
will create awareness and build adolescents capabilities to handle the onset of puberty. The
objective of integrating sex education in school education as well as having focussed
programmes for girls (SAB AL A), adolescents (SNEHA clinics) is to reduce unintended

pregnancies, child marriages, transmission of STD's. In addition to this, early sex education
delays the start of sexual activity, encourages those already sexually active to have safe sex, and

establishes the link between lack of effective use of contraceptives and the incidence of AIDS.

Information provided to pre-teens can also help them to recognise abuse and embolden them to

be able to speak about it. This is critical to meet the objectives of the 1CPS programme.

Overview and Vision
Girl Child [0 - 18 years]

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Girl child

Vision of the state
There is a bias against women across all age groups in the society today. Statistics such as the
sex ratio highlight the discrimination against a girl child that starts from the moment of birth, and

sometimes even before the child is born.

The state is unequivocally committed to the rights of the girl child. Every child, irrespective of
gender, has the right to equal opportunity and the state is committed to ensure the same. In

addition, it acknowledges the special needs of a girl throughout her lifecycle and is committed to
address the same through focused initiatives. Hence, the state envisions providing every girl

child, irrespective of her social and economic conditions,

the right to life and overall well being
equal rights to education as all children
awareness and empowerment to plan her marriage and motherhood at the right age

essential services to ensure healthy pregnancy and safe delivery as an adult

safeguards against social elements responsible for child pornography, child trafficking,

prostitution and sexual abuse crimes; and can reach out to a trusted entity in the local
community for rehabilitation and care.

A State Initiative to Rehabilitate Girl Children
Mahila Sikhshana Kendras run by Mahila Samakhya work towards enabling girl children who

are school drop outs to complete their school education. The girls are enrolled in different
batches in the Kendras depending on their age and learning levels. These Kendras also
concentrate on social awareness programmes and extracurricular activities. The focus is on

overall development of the girls along with dealing with the problem of out of school children.

These Kendras are run in the child marriage prone areas of North Karnataka.

Existing schemes and policies
Bhagyalakshmi

The objective of this scheme of the Women and Child Welfare department is to improve
attitudes towards girl children. This scheme is applicable to 2 girl children from below poverty
line families, born after 31.03.2006. On fulfilling certain requirements, INR 19, 300 is deposited

in a financial institution in the name of the first child, and Rs. 18, 350 is deposited for the second
child. On the attainment of 18 years, the first child gets Rs. 1, 00,097 and the second child INR

100,052.

If a girl wishes to continue her education post SSLC, she can pledge the bond and avail a loan up

to a maximum of Rs. 50,000. The father/mother/guardian of the Bhagyalakshmi beneficiary is
eligible of avail benefits under Janashree Bhima Yojana, the insurance scheme of LIC.

The eligibility conditions are as follows:
1. Either one of the parents of the girl child must have undergone terminal family planning.

The total number of children in the family must not exceed 3.
2. Compulsory registration at birth.
3. The child must be immunized as per the programme of the Health Department.

4. Enrollment in an Anganwadi center
5. Admission in a school recognized by the Education department
6. The child should not be a child laborer and must not marry till the age of 18.

Child Tracking System (Banangaladattha Bale)

The implementation of the child track system would ensure protection f children in the 0-18
years. Monitoring he key development indicators from birth registration to access to
immunisation, healthcare, nutrition, access to schooling, and simultaneously ensure no

drop out due to labor or marriage. Women and Child Welfare Department has initiated

the launching of the Child tracking system in Karnataka with the assistance of NIC. The
software developed enables the Departments concerned to know the status of the

children! with regard to education, migration from one place to another and benefits

availed from other departments in different schemes and also the status of payments to
beneficiaries from time to time. Children up to age of 18 years are tracked under this
system.
Bal Sanjeevni - Under 5 scheme for BPL families. This scheme aims at arresting the rate of

severe malnutrition and seeks to bring about reduction in malnutrition among all children. All

children identified as suffering from malnutrition under each round of Bal Sanjeevni Campaign
are provided requisite medical treatment and parents/guardians of the identified malnourished

children are provided counselling regarding the significance of nutritional diet. Children who
need super speciality services are referred to recognised medical colleges. Going forward the

scheme should be extended to all

Reduction of female foeticide

through Pre Conception and Pre Natal Detection Technology.

The PCNPNDT Act of 1994 prescribes a program which is currently being implemented and
monitoring. Under this act there are three state level committees. These include a state level

supervisory Board, headed by health minister, a state level appropriatory authority(multi member
body) and an Advisory committee. Through these committees the state is monitored. At a district

level there is a District appropriate authority headed by DHO. and an advisory committee.

Incentive scholarships to high school going girls
These scholarships are given by the Department of Social Welfare to encourage the school
going habit among SC girl students. All high school going girls except those residing in Govt. /

aided hostels are eligible for the scholarship. There is no income limit for these scholarships. If a
candidate fails repeatedly, she loses eligibility for the scholarship. Girls are eligible to receive

Rs. 600/- per annum totally as scholarship. The Taluk Social Welfare Officer is responsible for

disbursement of the scholarships under this scheme.

Assistance scholarship for girls from rural areas

These scholarships are provided by the Department of Women and Child Welfare to reduce
dropout rate at primary and secondary school levels, and encourage rural girls to improve their

education. To be eligible for the scholarship, family income of the girl must be less than Rs.

10,000 and the girl must be a resident of a village with a population of less than 2,000. Rs. 25 per
month is given to girls between 5th to 7th standards for 10 months and Rs. 50 per month is given

to girls from 8th to IO1'1 standards. The scheme is implemented in 18 educationally backward
districts through the Zilla Panchayats.
Financial assistance to run hostels for girls from rural areas

Admissions to hostels are available to students residing in rural areas whose family income is
less than Rs. 10, 000 per annum and are studying in pre-matric and post-matric classes.
Maintenance grant of Rs. 500 per month per girl student is provided. I he deputy director is

responsible for the implementation of this scheme in the district.
National Programme for education of girls at elementary level, a component of the Sarva

Shiksha Abhiyan programme, launched during 2003-04, is a focused intervention to reach the
hardest to reach girls, especially those who not in school while continuing the efforts to retain the

girls who are already in schools. Mahila Samakhya Karnataka has appointed Cluster Co­
ordinators to take stock of the situation in the particular cluster related to education of girls. They

mobilize the community, particularly mothers and women groups to identify the out of school
girls and enroll them to school. Remedial teaching to girls is also provided to girls under the
scheme, to ensure girls who are not performing well don’t drop out. SDMC is the implementing

agency for all the activities of SSA at the school level.

Teacher training aspects of the scheme: Under NPEGEL, teachers of the cluster/block have

been oriented to the roles and responsibilities of the teachers in educating the girls and sustaining

them in the schooling system. Focus was also made in training the teachers about the social
problems and adolescent problems of the girl child. The module for this training is developed at

the cluster level under the guidance of block resource or cluster resource persons.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya: Government of India has launched a scheme for girls

called “Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya”. Under this scheme, residential schools with

boarding facilities are provided at elementary level for out of school girls belonging
predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minorities in difficult areas. The objective is to ensure
access and quality education to girls of disadvantaged groups. The scheme is part of the initiative

of the GOI to promote education for the girl child, under the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan

programme. Mahila Samakhya Karnataka runs KGBV schools in 27 blocks of 7 districts of
North Eastern Karnataka. NGOs and Self Help Groups are involved in areas like providing food,

security, medical care, imparting vocational education, community mobilization etc. in

implementing KGBV scheme in the remaining 31 blocks.
Kishori Shakti Yojana
Under this scheme of the Women and Child Welfare department, services are provided to
improve nutritional, educational and health status of adolescent girls. All the adolescent girls
enrolled in the AWC are eligible for the scheme. The AWW is responsible for implementation.

Adolescent education program
DSERT conducts training programs for teachers to enable them to provide education to children

in health, life skills and related issues. This training is particularly crucial for adolescent girls, to
cope with their changing bodies.

Implementation of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006

The DDs/CDPO/Child Marriage Prohibition Officer is responsible for the implementation of
this act at the taluk level. The Act was brought into force in 2007, and the State rules were
notified in 2008. The responsibility of the officer in charge is to create awareness among the
general public on harmful effects of child marriage, provisions under the act and the punishments

stipulated, through folk art, street plays, songs etc.

Scheme for prevention of trafficking of women and children

The objective of the scheme is to create awareness at the district, taluk and village levels
regarding trafficking. Anti trafficking committees have been constituted at the district, taluk and

gram panchayat level. The committees are responsible for prevention, rescue, care, protection
and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking. In addition, awareness programs are organized at
the taluk level for the general public. The DD/CDPO is responsible for implementation of this
scheme at the district level.

Implementation of Karnataka Marriage (Regulation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act,

1976

The DD/CDPO is responsible for the implementation of the registration of marriages as per the
act at the taluk level. Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of stamps is notified

as Chief Marriage Registration officer. The Sub-Registrars of the Stamps and Registration
Department and Village Accountants of the Revenue Departments have been notified as
Marriage Registration officers in their respective jurisdictions.

Way forward: Key areas of focus
Following are key areas of focus going forward
Preventing female infanticide

The state has continued in ongoing campaign against female infanticide including the abortion of
the unborn girl child over the

years. Legislations have been passed that ban the practice of ascertaining the sex of the child
prior to its birth and any injustice to the girl child after it is born. However, sex selective
abortions and female infanticide continue to prevail. Government of Karnataka will ensure
stronger enforcement of the provisions of there-natal Diagnostics techniques (PNDT) Act. . In

addition, the state will strengthen the process of tracking of the girl child, and monitoring her
overall well being. This will be done through Anganwadi workers, ANMS and ASHA in the
communities and at the relevant health centres. In order to ensure transparency, the government
will continue to encourage institutional deliveries and make registration of births mandatory.

Ensuring education for the girl child
Studies conducted by UNIFEM. UNICEF, and SCERT have consistently highlighted the key

reasons that disadvantage girl children from enrolling and pursuing education. These include

inherent bias of the parents against the child, lack of schools nearby coupled with the parents’

unwillingness to let their daughters travel, the need to take care of the younger sibling and child
marriage.

In order to address the bias against the girl child and the attitude of the parents to look at the
child as a cost, the state will continue its awareness campaigns locally and through mass media
to sensitize the parents. In addition, the government would provide conditional cash transfer to

the parents of girl children to encourage them to send their daughters to school.
Although the state government has made efforts to ensure that schools are easily accessible to all

children, special effort will be made to ascertain that the needs of the girl child are kept in mind
while planning for school locations.. All schools will be equipped with toilets and other sanitary
facilities to ensure that lack of such facilities do not discourage the girl child. Government will

scale up its initiative to provide zero grade schools within schools so that the girls can have their
younger siblings in the school campuses while they attend school.
Creating awareness on sanitation and nutrition
In the next decade, i.e 2010-2020, there will be specific focus in schools and in communities to

develop locally relevant best practices with and for the girl children on cleanliness and
sanitation. Awareness campaigns will be run in schools and in communities on menstruation and
related sanitary best practices.

In addition, the health centres will also address the specific nutrition and food supplement needs,

such as Iron, that the girl needs during this phase.
Addressing child marriage
One of the key challenges today in addressing child marriages is the lack of transparency in
marriages since the registration of marriages is not strongly enforced. Parents continue to see the

girl as a social and financial liability and hence would like to get her married as soon as possible.

Mass marriages make this event an open and accepted social activity and hence difficult to

control. Due to state intervention in the last few years, mass child marriages have been controlled

to a large extent. The need now is to keep the focus on completely stopping a) mass marriages
and b) individual instances of child marriage.

The state will adopt a multi-pronged approach to address the issue of child marriage. Firstly, the
government would continue to raise awareness among parents and the community on the adverse

effects of child marriage. Secondly, enforcement drives will be held regularly. Thirdly, the
government is looking to form a policy that enforces the registration of marriages by making the

marriage certificate essential for a host of other services. The registrar will be required to
validate the age of the girl during registration of marriage.:

In addition to preventing child marriages, the government also acknowledges the need to
rehabilitate girls who have married early. Sufficient rehabilitation and counselling will be

provided to the girls to ensure that they are able to resume a normal life.

VH »

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Overview and Vision
Children
with
Disability
[0 - 18 years]

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Differently-abled Children

Vision of the state
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

(UNCRPD)11, “Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental,
intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their
full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others12.*’ The UNCRPD

outlined its purpose as “to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their

inherent dignity” and outlined a vision on the essential rights of persons with disability.
Specifically, the Convention emphasizes its focus on children with disability in Article 713
1. States Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the full enjoyment by children
with disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with

other children.

2. In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a
primary consideration.

3. States Parties shall ensure that children with disabilities have the right to express their
views freely on all matters affecting them, their views being given due weight in
accordance with their age and maturity, on an equal basis with other children, and to be

provided with disability and age-appropriate assistance to realize that right.
In keeping with our agreement with the convention without any reservation, the state outlines a

vision that will further harmonize and strengthen the implementation of the convention towards

11 United Nations Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities; http://www.un.org/disabilities/index.asp
12 UNCRPD, Article 1 - Purpose; http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp7id-261
13 UNCRPD, Article 7 - Children with Disability; http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=267

ensuring the essential rights of the child. Hence, the state envisions for every child with
disability, irrespective of the social and economic conditions.
Is provided reasonable accommodation to be able to exercise their right to equal

opportunities in education, health, employment, cultural life, recreation, leisure, spoit and

participation in public and private life.

Is able to enjoy the freedom, liberty and security that are rightfully hers/his through equal



ise her/his rights without any discrimination
recognition before law and the ability to exercise

on the basis of disability.



Is able to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life by ensuring
accessibility in all public physical spaces including physical infrastructure, transformation,

information and communication technologies in both rural and urban areas
Is part of a community that is aware of and sensitive to the capabilities of children with



disability

Existing schemes and policies
At a national level the following schemes have been enacted:
Integrated Education of Disabled Children (I.E.D.C.): This scheme provides educational

opportunities for children with disability in common schools, to facilitate their retention in the

school system and also to place in common schools, such children already placed in special
schools after they acquire the communication and daily living skills at the functional level. The
scheme provides for the following:



Actual expense on books and stationery up to Rs 400 per annum.



Actual expenses on uniforms up to Rs 200 per annum; transport allowance up to Rs 50

per month.


Reader allowance of Rs 50 per month in case of blind children up to Class V.



Escort allowance for severely disabled children with lower extremity disability at the rate

of Rs 75 per month.


Actual cost of equipment subject to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per month for five years.

Besides these, it also provides for teachers' salaries, facilities to students in terms of board and

lodging allowance, readers allowance, transport allowance, escort allowance, cost of equipment,
cost of uniform, cost of removal of architectural barriers, and provision of resource room, etc.

Project Integrated Education for the Disabled (P.I.E.D.): This was the first pilot project on

integrated education in India. Launched in 1987, P.I.E.D. was a joint venture of the Ministry of
Human Resource Development and UNICEF. Under this, 6,000 children with special needs were

integrated in regular schools.
Inclusive Education for the Disabled at a Secondary Stage (LE.D.S.S): This scheme was
launched in 2009 -2010 and provides 100 per cent Central assistance for disabled children
towards secondary education. The scheme provides for the personal requirements of the children
in the form of assistive devices, helpers, transport, hostel and learning materials etc.

District Rehabilitation Scheme:
In early 1995, the Government launched the District Rehabilitation Center (DRC) Scheme as a

model of comprehensive rehabilitation services to rural areas. The objectives of the DRC include

1) Surveying the disabled population and employing measures to ensure prevention of

disability
2) Early detection, medical intervention and surgical correction.

3) Fitting of artificial aids and appliances.
4) Therapeutic services which include physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech

therapy.
5) Provision of educational services in special and integrated schools and provision of

vocational training.

6) Awareness generation for the involvement of community and family to create a cadre of

multi-disciplinary professionals to take care of major categories of disabled in the district.

1. Under the Inclusive Education Component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the

following services are provided to children who are differently-abled:

a. Inclusive Education Resource Teachers: 3 lERTs function in each block
for the education and provision of supportive services of children with
special needs.

b. Medical

camps/

Functional

assessment

camps

conducted

in

collaboration with the department of health, women and child

development and NGO’s working in the field.
c. Required aids and appliances are supplied to these children after

functional assessment.
d. Short term training courses for general teachers are also conducted.

e. Awareness programmes are held at district, block and cluster levels.
“Namagu ide Saamarthya” Naavu samartharu Naavu kaliaballevu” (We

too have ability, we are capable, and we are educable) is an awareness
programme in which children, including those with special needs
participate.
f.

Parental training is also conducted as part of the inclusive education

programs of SSA.

g. Creation of barrier free environments through the construction of
ramps in all schools.

h. Resource centres: Efforts are on to set up resource centres in all blocks
for teacher training, and teacher empowerment programs.

i.

Home based education: To enable children who cannot attend school
acquire education and to achieve universal enrolment, children with such

conditions are enrolled in nearby schools, and access is provided at their

homes.

Way forward: Key focus areas
Provide effective inclusive education

The State shall ensure effective inclusive education for children with disabilities based on the
following three fundamental tenets
1.

The State acknowledges the right of the child to equal opportunities to education in
her/his neighbourhood. Through the Right to Education Act, the state will ensure that
the child is provided equal opportunity to enrol in a school within 5 KM of radius and

will not be rejected on the basis of disabilities.
2.

The State shall provide reasonable accommodation to ensure inclusive education for
the children with disability by effecting structural changes in the education system
(including teaching methodology, examinations, use of technology), ensuring universal

design of physical infrastructure (including facilities within the schools, access to the
schools, transportation), training the teachers and the appropriate educators and raising
awareness about disability.

3.

The State shall create a decentralized execution model through Inclusion cells at
various levels of administration including one at the school levels. The Inclusion cells

will provide the necessary expertise in defining and implementation disability-friendly
strategies based on the local needs of the children.

Right to equal opportunities in the neighbourhood
a) Through the Right to Education (RTE) act, the schools will be mandated to provide

admissions to all children in the neighbourhood without any discrimination on the basis
of the child’s disability.

b) The School Development and Monitoring Committees (SDMC) will be responsible to

ensure that the children with disability are enrolled and retained in the school. The
SDMCs will continuously monitor the enrolment and dropout rates of children with
disability and act in case of any exceptions.

c) Parents of children with disability will be included in SDMCs to ensure effective

representation and informed perspective towards issues around children with disability.
d) Also, in cases where children with severe disabilities have restrictions on movement,

arrangements to provide home based education will be strengthened.

Structural changes in the education system
a) Efforts will be made to integrate children with motor handicaps and other mild handicaps

into the mainstream classroom education, so as to provide the child with an inclusive
holistic experience.

b) Efforts will be made to design, modify and adapt curriculum and teaching-learning

material (e.g. provide large print material) according to a set of standardised norms.
c) Systems of examinations will be implemented that help the child overcome the

disadvantage due to the nature and extent of disability including

permitting use of

technology and adaptations (E.g. calculators) and to provide for flexibility in qualifying

marks and pass percentages for children with severe learning difficulties, mental
retardation etc.
d) The State will

promote total communication including augmentative & alternative

communication methods in different environments with the use of individualized way of

speaking and listening, using non verbal or metaphorical forms for communication,
especially in case of people with autism, deafblindness, cerebral-palsy, mental illness etc.

e) Arrangements will be made in ITFs and other vocational training centres, so as to
provide vocational training to children, according to their disabilities. Efforts will be

made to develop courses and curriculum to cater to specific disabilities

f) Use of technology targeted towards the needs of children with disabilities will be
encouraged to complement and aid the existing teaching methods.
Accessibility of physical infrastructure

a) Efforts will be made to see that schools provide an environment to the child that is

disability friendly. As a first step, barrier free environments (ramps in schools,
appropriate toilets, furniture and sports facilities) will be created in schools, particularly

in new schools.

b) Access to the school will be facilitated through appropriate means of transport.
Training of educators

a) Existing institutions and teacher training centres shall focus and implement specific
training courses focused on teaching to children with disability. Such a training shall

include focus on alternate forms of communication, behaviour management and

counselling to identify and foster capabilities among children with disability.
b) Additional teachers trained in teaching children with disabilities or special educators will
be recruited as per the needs of children with disabilities enrolled in the school.

c) An effective teacher-student ratio will be maintained in the schools in order to provide

the requisite attention to the students. Wherever it is required, shadow teachers and
additional staff will be involved.
d) In addition to the teachers, there will be dedicated personnel in the school who have the
expertise to handle special children.

Sensitization and Awareness building
a) Teachers, other children and the community as a whole must be made sensitive about

issues concerning disability, so that children with disability are treated with the required

dignity and concern.
b) Create awareness about the rights of children with disabilities, by using mass media and

by conducting campaigns targeting specific communities.

Decentralized education model through Inclusion cells
a) Inclusion cells will be setup at different levels - including state, district, block, circle and
school levels in order to provide the required expertise and to address the local needs of

the children with disability.

b) The Inclusion Cell that would be staffed by trained teachers/ special educators/ para
teachers/ shadows/ aides and have visiting professionals/consultants on an on-going

basis, for observation & training purposes.
c) The Inclusion cells will also be equipped with a Resource room together with special
educators. Occupational therapists & speech therapists, to pull out children in need &

work with them in a 1:1 or a small group setting with the aim of inclusion.
In order to achieve these objectives, a set of dedicated personnel in the form of lERT’s have been

functioning. IERT’ and volunteers work towards providing life skills training and education to
severely disabled children through home based education. Specific training programs for regular
teachers have also beset up, in order to sensitize teachers to the needs of the children with
disabilities In the subsequent years, these programmes will be strengthened, and awareness

sessions will be held for all children in schools, to provide a sensitized environment to children
with disabilities. Awareness programs in the community will also be held on a regular basis in all
districts.

Providing Physical Education
The State recognises that education is not limited to the classroom. Sports and recreation are as
crucial for the overall development of the child, and this applies equally to children with

disabilities. The State will involve the local community to create and maintain recreational
spaces for these children. The effort to provide financial and other assistance to children with
disabilities to pursue education will be continued. Adequate facilities and opportunities for

training will also be made available for children inclined towards sports and cultural activities.

Provide access to effective Healthcare
The state will have two key priorities in ensuring effective healthcare to children with disability

The State will focus on ensuring early detection of disabilities in order to provide optimal
medical care and support to the children with disabilities.

The State is committed to provide the children with disabilities access to healthcare in
their own neighbourhood both in rural and urban areas.

Early detection of disabilities

a) The state shall focus more on preventive measures over curative measures to increase

effectiveness. Efforts will be made to ensure early identification and certification of
disabilities, so as to ensure treatment and rehabilitation for the child from a young
age.

b) The Anganwadi workers and the Auxiliary Mid Nurse (ANM) will include early

identification tests as part of their regular engagement with the local families to
monitor the height and weight of the children.

c) In order to ensure transparency on these activities, specific monthly reporting will
setup at the block level to monitor the progress of early identification activities.

d) There will be increased focus towards increasing the number of institutional

deliveries so that the newborns are provided required care and attention from the time
of birth.
e) In case of delayed development and mental disabilities where detection becomes
difficult, training programs shall be instituted on the ANM’s in addition to awareness

programmes will be conducted for the families so that they could constantly monitor
the child's behaviour and identify any exceptions proactively.

f) The State shall train AWWs and medical doctors to increase efficiency in detection
Access to healthcare in local communities
a) ‘Door to door accesses' to healthcare facilities will be made a priority, ranging from

accessible transport and physical access to the hospitals. Hospitals must be made

barrier free, with access to ramps and disability friendly elevators, and toilets which

cater to the handicapped.

b) Effective Neo-natal units will be setup in the local areas that can provide expertise
and care to children with disabilities. These units will also help identify and provide

preventive care to children with the risk of disability.
c) The State will strengthen the network of Disabled Multiple Rehabilitation Workers

(MRW) and Village Rehabilitation Workers (VRW) who are trained on rehabilitation
and care of persons with disability. The State will invest in these workers by

providing them more trainings and revising their remuneration.
d) The VRWs, together with the Anganwadi workers, will conduct regular checks and

identify children with the risk of disability. These children will receive special
attention from the doctors during the periodic visit to the areas. The state will enforce

two hours of dedicated time spent by the doctors on monitoring children with risk of

disability as part of the Swarna Arogya chaitanya scheme.
e) Efforts will be made to improve the referral system which exists today. Currently

there is a need to improve the supply chain system between the CHC’s and the district
and national level hospitals. Health care professionals shall be trained to identify

children with disabilities and at risk of developing a disability, so as to be able to
refer them for intervention.
Protecting the children with disability from discrimination

The State recognizes that children with disability deserve equal rights without any discrimination
on the basis of disability. In order to ensure that the children’s right are protected, the State will


Focus on sensitizing the local community and the government officials so that they are
aware and sensitive to the needs and capabilities of the children with disabilities.



Provide an accessible and actionable recourse to the children with disabilities in case they
are faced with any discrimination. This will be an independent body to ensure effective
monitoring.



The State will involve the children with disabilities and relevant organizations working
with them in formulating policies that will impact the children so that their rights and

interests are safeguarded.
Sensitizing the local community

a) The state will focus on raising awareness throughout society, including at the family
level, regarding persons with disabilities, and to foster respect for the rights and dignity

of persons with disabilities
b) The State will leverage all forms of mass and digital media to reach out to the broader

community and spread awareness on disability.

c) Specific focus will be laid on students and teachers who are an integral part of the child’s
ecosystem to ensure they are sensitive to the needs of children with disability.

d) The State will also focus on the government officials across all functions that engage and
impact the lives of the children with disability to ensure that they are sensitive to the
needs of the children.
e) Schemes will be put in place to promote recognition of the skills, merits and abilities of
children with disabilities, and of their contributions in all walks of life.

f) The State will enforce guidelines to ensure sensitive reporting on topics related to
children with disability in mass media channels.

Including the interests of children with disability in policy formulation

a) The State will involve children with the disability in policy formulation that impact their
rights and interests in order to ensure that the children have the right to be heard and

influence decisions that impact them.
b) The State will engage with organizations working with the children with disability to

ensure their expertise is leveraged.

Ensure accessibility and Universal design of public spaces
Accessibility is a key requirement to ensure that the children with disability are able to live
independently.


The State shall enforce that all key public institutions such schools and hospitals comply
to clear guidelines to ensure that they are disability-friendly. This will be drafted as a
compliance requirement in the same lines as emergency and safety guidelines.

The State shall ensure that the physical transport that is provided is accessibility friendly
and can be used by all children with disability with essential external support. In addition,

the State will sensitize relevant government officials to assist and address the needs of
children with disability during transportation.


The State shall endeavour to provide information in a form that is accessible to children

with disability. The State shall endeavour to complement the same with live assistance
and intermediaries, and with effective use of information and communication

technologies to improve effectiveness.


The State shall focus on public spaces such as parks, which are essential for the physical

development and recreation of the children, to ensure that they are disability friendly, lhe
State will establish a decentralized execution and monitoring mechanism to ensure
effective compliance.



The State shall define a clear set of guidelines for private buildings (E.g. Housing) to
ensure that they are disability friendly.

Creating Spaces for Recreation for Children with Disability

Kili Kili, an organization that works with children with disabilities, develops disability friendly
play spaces with “specially designed equipment that is developmentally appropriate for all

children” . Examples of such equipment include the wheelchair merry-go-round that caters to
children with orthopaedic difficulties, cerebral palsy or multiple disabilities, inclusive sandpit
that is designed in such a way that it is accessible to children on wheelchairs, sensory integration

track etc. The organization currently works closely with (full form ) BBMP and the Department
of Education. It has prepared a set of disabled friendly architectural designs for homes and public

places.

Universal Infrastructure Requirements
Following are some of the universal infrastructure requirements based on Universal Best

Practices in Design


Access Routes: Access routes should be made accessible according to the application of

the building code or area having jurisdiction. Any rise above 13 mm should be treated as
a ramp but if there is a rise between 6-13 mm. it should be bevelled. Thresholds at

washroom entrances and at other doors should be avoided.
Entrances and Doors: As far as possible automatic sliding doors should be made
mandatory with guidelines to indicate the width of the doorway to accommodate people

in wheelchairs.


Ramps: The ramp surface should be non-slip and required to be of a contrasting colour.

Tactile cuing similar to that used to warn of an upcoming change in grade at stairs should
be provided one step back from the change in slope. Handrails are required on both sides
of ramps. Interior ramps should be preferred to stairs as they accommodate a wider range
of building users, including people who use wheelchairs.


Stairs: It is important that people who are blind know what floor is the exit floor so that
they do not continue down stairs into the lower levels of. Some building owners must use
methods such as installing gates to prevent people from descending too far.



Elevators: A minimal gap should be given between the elevator and the foyer. Audible

signals should signal the arrival of the elevator and the direction of travel. Another

practice to make elevators more Accessible is the inclusion of a mirror at the top of the
back wall of the elevator. This will assist people who use wheelchairs to see behind them
as they back out as well as assist them to see the floor indicators that illuminate as the
elevator moves.



Individual accessible washrooms should be provided that can be used by both men and
women and provide adequate room for an attendant or family member of the opposite sex

is a best practice.

- ,^11 III HL,

Overview and Vision
Child protection

GAR£



Child protection
Vision
Child Protection
Child Protection is central to all the programmes and services of the State and over the last

decade has prioritised

Child Protection calls for convergence of key departments of police DWCD, Education, Labour,

RDPR.
SCPU as part of the implementing mechanism and he CPUnit at the district level as the nodal for

all programs and activities related to children at district and sub-district level.

Existing enforcement of legislations - JJ Act, PCMA. ITPA, PCPNDT (cross ref from Health)

Existing Legislations being enforced

Juvenile Justice Act 2000

This is a central Act for the care and protection of all children of the state based on the
principles of the United Nations Convection on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Key principles are
a. The state recognises two categories of children - Children in Conflict with Law
and Children in Need of Care and Protection and set up Statutory Bodies in all
districts - Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and Child Welfare Committees (CWC)
respectively.

b. The state acts as as care provider for children who do not have parental/guardian’s
care.
c. The Role of Police is redefined to make police child friendly as they are often the

first contact for a child in need/distress. There will be a setting up of SJPUs in all
districts and Child Welfare Officer in every Police Station.

II
d. The state recognizes the role of the family as primary care giver and intends to
tak a non-institutional approach - adoption, sponsorship and foster care.
Institutionalisation shall be treated as a last resort.
e. Systems for Speedy disposal of cases will be put into place so that children can be

restored to families at the earliest.

The Government of Karnataka aims to address the issue of child protection taking into account
all children who have been separated or have been deprived of the care of their parents, legal

guardians and sometimes their community.
Keeping this in mind, the will focus on the following key aspects



In case of temporary separation, it will take the best efforts possible to help the child

reunite with the parents or legal guardian as soon as possible.



Wherever it is not possible to reunite the child, the state will ensure that the children
receive the best possible care and ample opportunities for growth and development.



Proactive engagement with the children who live in difficult circumstances to ensure that
they received proper counselling and the relevant skills

The state will be sensitive to the cultural and social differences of children who have
been displaced from their local communities and need rehabilitation and care.



The state will proactively ensure community engagement, wherever possible, in cases of
arbitration and rehabilitation of the child.

ADD OTHER ACTS
Existing schemes and policies
For children in conflict with law, and children in need of special care and attention, the following

programmes are applicable:

Plan of Action for Combating Trafficking in Women and Children

Government of Karnataka has prepared State Plan for Combatting Trafficking in Women and
Children. The objective of the Action plan is to ensure protection and timely intervention to
women and children from being trafficked and sold, within the state and outside, for various

commercial purposes, including forced labor, commercial sex work/prostitution, adoption,
begging, marriage, organ transplant, sale or transport of narcotics, substance abuse etc.. The
Action Plan envisages a five-fold strategy that includes Prevention, Rescue, Rehabilitation,
Victim protection, Repatriation and Restoration. The Act also spells out a detailed institutional

mechanism for the implementation of the various programs and activities. It mandates the setting
up of anti-trafficking vigilance committees at the three tiers of the Panchayat Raj. Anti­
trafficking committees are tasked with taking necessary measures for prevention, rescue, care
protection and rehabilitation of the victims. In order to sensitize the committees regarding the

issue of trafficking at the grass root level, regularly training programs are conducted. They are

encouraged to create awareness using activities such as jathras, rallies, street plays etc. The
Deputy Director at the state level and CDPO at the district level is responsible for

implementation of the scheme.

The rehabilitation of the children rescued will be in coordination with the child welfare

committees and the JJ homes. The primary focus towards prevention is to create awareness at the
district, taluk and village levels regarding trafficking in women and children - violation of rights,

loss of opportunity to development, emotional and physical health impairment, social ostracism
etc.

Ujjwala: is a Scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
for Prevention of Trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Re-integration of victims of

trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation in partnership with NGO's across the state,

specifically in high incidence districts.
Scheme for the welfare of children in need of care and protection
Financial assistance is given from the Department of Women and Child Development to

registered voluntary organizations working in the field of child welfare to run a destitute home

u
for the care and maintenance of destitute children with a unit of 25 children. Amount to the

extent of 90% is sanctioned by the Government and the remaining 10% is borne by the

organization. The organization is eligible for maintenance grant at the rate of Rs. 400 per month
per child, and rent at the rate of Rs. 50 per month per child.
Observation homes: Children in conflict with law who have been produced befoie the juvenile
justice board and who have been committed to custodial care are placed in these homes

Children homes are meant for children in need of care and protection, including during the
pendency of any inquiry. The Homes provide accommodation. Food, clothing and bedding and

facilities for education, recreation, training and rehabilitation
Fit institutions: Voluntary organizations have been recognized as fit institutions by the

Department of Women and Children for providing care and protection to deserving children. Fit

institutions are provided Rs. 500 per month per child for maintenance.

Reception Centres and State Homes have been started under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act

1956. These centres receive women and girls who are in need of care and shelter, as voluntary

cases, rescued during raids and those sent by the courts under the Immoral Traffic (Pi evention)

Act for training and rehabilitation. There are 4 Reception Centres and 8 State homes in the State.

Scheme of assistance to homes (Shishugrehas) for children to pomote in-country Adoption

(GOsI): Under the scheme, infants and children up to six years of age who are either
abandoned/orphaned or destitute are covered. The scheme seeks to promote adoption of these

children within the country.

Sponsorship programme for placing children in families is a scheme that provides non
institutional support to children of families below poverty line. To enable parents to bring up

children in family environment, the resources of the child coming under the purview of the act

are supplemented. His/her vocational, educational and health caie needs are financed.

Supplementary support is provided to the family. DD/WWO Superintendent of institutions is

responsible for implementation.

Statutory mechanisms for children in need of care and protection under the JJ act
a) Child Welfare Committees comprising of five members including chairperson forms the
bench of the magistrate for addressing the issues of children in need of care and

protection. The categories of children reached out to through the CWC include children

who are victims of child marriage, trafficking, forced labor, all forms of abuse, begging,
relinquished or abandoned children of prisoners/sex workers, children infected or

affected by HIV or Aids, Street children

b) JJ Board: have been set up in all the thirty districts of the state and comprise of principle
magistrate and two social workers one of whom is a woman. Children in conflict with
law and alleged to have committed an offence are produced before J J board for inquiry

and further procedures including rehabilitation.

c) Special Juvenile Police Unit: set up by the Karnataka state police. Presently there are

thirty eight SJPU covering all districts, 7 city zones, and two commissoneraites. The

SJPU is set up under the supervision of SP/commissioner with the Senior Child Welfare
Officers of the rank of Police Inspector as the operational in charge.

Child Welfare Officers : Senior Child Welfare Officers of the rank of Police Inspector are

identified at the district level. One or two police officers of the rank of AS1 have been identified
as Child Welfare Officers in each police station to take care of children coming under the

purview of the juvenile justice system.
The members of the three statutory bodies along with child line, NGO’s and personnel of JJ
institutions are the key JJ functionaries working in coordination towards the care and protection

of children.

Devadasi’ Rehabilitation project

It is run by the Karnataka State Women’s Development Corporation to eradicate the 'Devadasi'
system in collaboration with the NGO Myrada. This project also targets children of Devadasis

and children who live in areas where this practice is rampant.

Community Based Rehabilitation and Care

Department of Women and Child Development, and Karnataka Health Promotion Trust

(KHPT) have initiated a community based rehabilitation program for reaching out to children
infected and affected by HIV and Aids. A detailed assessment of children are taken up at the

district level and subsequently enrolled into the sponsorship program.This program adopts an
inclusive approach towards such children by integrating local community and by treating the

mother and child as one unit (as opposed to approaching the child as an isolated entity). In
providing support services to HIV+ children, KHPT works through the family, care givers and

relatives and the local community. In situations where the child is orphaned and does not have

any care givers, it transfers such children to institutions run by local panchayats. Hence, the

community is central to KHPT’s intervention in providing care and support to HIV+ children,
this is driven by a belief that institutionalization, which isolates children from their
communities, is not an adequate approach to dealing with HIV/AIDS. Recognising this,

Department of Women and Child Development has allocated a sum of Rs. 1 Crore to enable
integration of OVC children, particularly HIV+ children in the community. ** recap As of

2010, 3360 children are benifiting to the tune of 83 lakhs

Way forward: Key focus areas
Implementation of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS):
Government of Karnataka will focus its efforts on setting up of the Karnataka State Integrated
Child Protection society and the district child protection units across the state as the nodal

agency for coordinating all programs and services for children to ensure their protection. The
society and the district units will coordinate with key departments, civil society organisations,
other statutory mechanisms in the process. They will also be responsible for creating awareness

and sensitising the public at large on the various protection issues including forced labor,
trafficking, child marriage child abuse, missing children etc.

The state and district mechanisms will also be the hub for all data pertaining to children
including that of missing children and importantly take up periodic review and
monitoring for effective implementation. Capacity building of all functionaries through

development of appropriate modules and materials, and development of IEC on child
protection issues are also key tasks of the society and units

Strengthen Police Coordination with DWCD for child Protection:
1) Institutionalisation of training of SJPU : The state will ensure that every police station

has a minimum of 3 police officers trained on issues related to children specifically
the enforcement of child related legislations. This is 3 fold increase in the trained
personnel. All these trained police officers will be designated as Child Welfare

Officers.
2) Convergent periodic reviews (quarterly) will be undertaken. At these quarterly

reviews representatives of SJPU, CWC, JJ Board, Childline, NGO s and Institutions

housing children need to be present. The objective of the review meeting will be to
address the issues faced in JJ implementation and resolving the same.
3) The Police department will build internal capacities and create a team of resource

persons as master trainers. These trainers will be responsible for conducting trainings

of police personnel.
4) Contingency fund at every police station and SJPU level for meeting the needs of

children and women approaching the police as well as for transportation/escort of
children to CWC/JJ B/rehabilitation institutions/ residence of the children

Registration of all child care institutions
The state will ensure registration of all child care institutions as mandated by the JJ Act,.
DWCD will be responsible for registration. This is to ensure transparency and

accountability in child care. The registration process will involve review by the
department officials and subsequent monitoring to ensure quality standards of care.

Ensuring Quality Standards in Institutional Care
The state has developed the guidelines and norms for ensuring quality standards of care in

institutions to ensure overall safety and protection of children. The implementation of the norms

will require regular visits and reviews by the department officials to all the institutions.

The quality standards will also be recommended for implementation by other departments that
have residential child care programs like SSA, Labor, Social welfare etc.

Guidelines and registration - annexe
Viable Rehabilitation for children in child care institutions including Observation Homes and
Special Homes

The process of justice to children is not complete without appropriate vocational and life skill
training to children in the rehab homes. Based on need assessment of children, gender, age and

educational background of the child, effort will be made to introduce lifeskill training and
vocational training.

Retaining the child in the local community
While the OVC children are separated from their parents, oftentimes they are taken care of by
their relatives who do not have the means to support the child. In such cases, the relatives leave

the child in a foster-care to be taken care of. The state will provide financial assistance to poor

families who are willing to take care of the child and be the child's legal guardian
In addition, in cases where the child has been found in conflict of the law, the institutions will
involve the local community to understand the context and the background of the child and also
try and devise community-based activities to rectify the child's behaviour.

Improving the rehabilitation homes infrastructure

Increase the number of rehabilitation homes
Government of Karnataka will evaluate whether sufficient numbers of rehabilitation homes exist

presently, and take steps to see that sufficient coverage is available across the state. This will
translate into having homes at taluk levels. In order to ensure quality care. Government of

Karnataka plans to undertake a listing of private organizations run child rehabilitation homes.
Standards for the same will then be formulated. State will then mandate that homes that are run

without prior approval of the government should be closed down and any mishandling of

children will considered very seriously.
Empower personnel to handle socially and psychologically challenged children

There is a need to build capacity in the juvenile homes to address social and psychological needs
of children.
These homes will also be equipped with personnel to deal with children who have illegally
immigrated to the country and have to be repatriated. There are cases of children from various

states who do not understand the local language or have any social connections within the state

to reach out to. In such cases, the state will provide the required support for the rehabilitation

personnel to reach out to local experts who will be able to address the situation effectively. The
state will conduct capacity building programmes for the personnel to identify such conditions
and be able to be with these children.
Ensure greater transparency in temporary rehabilitation homes

While the state ensures that there is a clear record of all children who are enrolled in a
rehabilitation home, there have been instances reported when children have been made to stay in
a Juvenile Justice home for a prolonged duration. This has resulted in psychological and social

deviant behaviour that is difficult to resolve. Hence, the state will enforce clear rules on the
number of days a child should spend within a rehabilitation home, and any exceptions to the

rules have to be explicitly recorded and approved by a monitoring committee.

Provide accessible support systems

A family is the primary source of support for a child. However, in cases where the child cannot
leverage such as support system, it is the state's responsibility to provide such a support system

to the child. The state acknowledges the need to understand the child's context to provide the

required support. At the same time, there is the need for expertise to understand the physical,
emotional and psychological challenges that the child is going through in order to provide the
right support to the child.

The state will create a support system (that could be realized as help lines and as counselling
centres to support face to face interactions) that the children can reach out to in case of any

concerns. The state will offer one system to address all challenges to make it easier for the child

to reach out to the same in case of distress.

The state acknowledges the need for such a system to be independent of the institutions that are
responsible for the rehabilitation of the child so as to ensure that there’s an independent external
monitoring that ensures that the child’s challenges are heard and addressed.
Prevention and rehabilitation of victims of abuse

Physical 1, psychological and sexual abuse of children is a matter of serious concern for the state.

Several schemes have been implemented to prevent abuse, and provide rehabilitation to children
who are victims of abuse. Implementation of legislations such as Immoral Trafficking Prevention
Act, and Devadasi Rehabilitation and Mahila Samakhya programme have helped reduce the

overt practice of these crimes. The focus will now be on eliminating the practice entirely as
instances of clandestine occurrence are still reported. This will be accomplished through a multi­

pronged strategy of a) creation of awareness within the community in high prevalence areas b)

stricter enforcement of laws and regulations c) partnering with NGOs and private sector to

establish and run rehabilitation facilities for victims of child prostitution and sexual abuse.
Special focus will also be given to creating a fear free atmosphere in police stations to file cases

on sexual exploitation of children. Community policing initiative with special cells to monitor
and prevent incidence of commercial sexual exploitation of children will be started.

Adoption of children
India has signed Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption-1993. In line with this

Government of Karnataka will adopt safeguards and ethical practices as stipulated in the
convention. Government of Karnataka also accepts the need for a paradigm shift in interventions

to the rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection from residential care to a family
based care.
While the state of Karnataka will adhere to family based care policies, it acknowledges that there

have been instances where adoption agencies have been involved in crime such as child
trafficking. Therefore, it will continue to more stringently monitor adoption agencies.

Remove the stigma against HIV/AIDS

While there has been a strong focus in addressing the problem of children who are HIV+, the
current approach is still bogged down by the stigma around the disease. The identities of the

affected children are withheld to avoid ostracism. This creates many challenges in delivering

benefits to the children and in increasing awareness among the community. There is a need to
demystify the disease and treat it just as any other physical illness so that the stigma around the
disease is removed.
In order to achieve this, the state will empower the local administration to address the challenge
through ASHA and the Anganwadi workers. The local panchayat will be responsible for

identifying the children and disbursing the required funds for the schemes benefitting these
children. The state will also run awareness campaigns on the same lines to achieve level great
level of acceptance and social dialogue on how to tackle the disease.

Implementation Mechanism
The child can only truly be safeguarded when the various departments work with each other in
order to jointly implement various schemes and to ensure no duplication of effort and to
minimise the efficiency loss due to lack of unity and cooperation between the various
departments.
Various acts such as the JJ Act, Child Labor Act, PITA and the Child Abuse Act have been

enacted by the Supreme Court and ICPC. All the committees should be located under one roof in

order to facilitate interdepartmental communication and fostering an cohesive approach towards

implementation of the above policies.

Anti Trafficking committees are already functional at a taluk and a gram panchayat level. These
committees should report into one committee at a state level which is empowered to make all the
decisions under the various acts to take action in the State.

Overview and Vision
Crosscutting themes

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Decentralized execution
Addressing the needs of the child is a responsibility that is divided across multiple departments
within the government. While the state action plan ensures that the planning across various

departments is harmonized, it is also important that the execution on the ground is harmonized
and is not limited to individual departments.
Keeping this goal in mind, the state government will move the responsibilities of execution

closer to the local administration. The district administration and the Panchayat will be

responsible for ensuring the strategies are implemented keeping in mind the holistic needs of the
child and local issues are identified and addressed effectively.

The local administration particularly the gram panchayats will be gradually made responsible for
dispensing the funds for the schemes. The Karnataka government has set up the School

Development and Management Committee (SDMC). This is meant to ensure proper participation
of parents in school activities. SDMC consist of three bodies—the executive body, which

consists of parent representatives, teachers and headmasters; the ex officio member body, which
consists of members from gram and taluka panchayats, anganwadi staff and health officials; and

a third body of all those who are interested in school activities.

The State of Karnataka will endeavour to increase the effectiveness of the existing SDMC’s.
There will also be an effort made to scale up such co-ordination with all players involved in the
education and well being of the child, beyond the school level to block, taluk and district levels.

Role of the community
The role of the community in the success of the state action plan is paramount. The community
plays three key roles in ensuring the realization of the state action plan.
Firstly, the community acts as a local watchdog to ensure the schemes and the plans are
implemented. The community holds the local administration accountable for implementation and

as part of the monitoring committees. The School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC)

is a good example of such an intention. In order to make them more effective, the state will
conduct more capacity building programmes and also further empower them.

Secondly, the community acts as a collective consciousness that defines what is ethically

acceptable to the child. For change in behaviour to occur, it is important for the community to

agree that a certain practice is not ethically acceptable for any laws or schemes to take effect. For

instance, until the community acknowledges the ill-effects of child marriage or agrees that the
child prostitution is unacceptable, it is impossible for the state to effect any change to address
these issues. In order to achieve this, the state will continue to organize effective awareness

campaigns and community drives to mobilize community opinion.

Finally, community organizations such as civil society organizations have constantly been able
to address local problems, implement local innovations and help improve the quality of the child.
It is important for the government to adopt some of the innovative best practices and scale them

across the state. Also the government will define a clear engagement model between the
community and the institutions so that they can leverage each other's strengths and together

impact the child’s life. Models have been created through several pilots that demonstrate that

involvement of dedicated functionaries from with the community helps promote the overall well
-being of the child. For example Vidya Sahayak under Janashala and community animators

under KCLP project. The next decade efforts will be made to scale this across all parts of the
state.

Streamlining the delivery of services
The child and the family live as part of the overall social fabric and their wellbeing is governed
by the availability of a robust infrastructure. Hence, it is essential that the state is able to ensure

efficient and accessible delivery of essential services which include food, water and health
services.

In addition to nutritious food in schools and Anganwadis, delivery of food materials through the
Public Delivery System (PDS) must be streamlined to ensure that families below the poverty line

have access to the essential quota of food. Similarly, there is strong need for an efficient waste
management infrastructure to ensure the overall health and wellbeing of the child. Clean drinking

water should be made available for all and essential best practices (such as boiling water before
consumption) should be shared through awareness programmes.
A robust health infrastructure must be available in every village. Infrastructure in Primary

healthcare centres will be improved with equipment required to address common ailments,
emergencies and be able to diagnose serious illnesses accurately and as early as possible.

Specialist medical professionals will be made available on a regular basis across villages in a
district.

Within the school, essential services such as toilers and provision of clean drinking will be

universally provided. The state will adopt this strategy to help better enrolment and retention in

schools of especially vulnerable groups such as girl children.

Child-friendly policies

Children are ubiquitous in the social landscape. Every policy that is put in place has a direct or
indirect effect on children. Hence it is important to ensure that all policies that are put into place

in the various departments, such as that of labor, social welfare, disability keep in mind the
impact that these policies may have . Efforts should be made to minimise the negative effect that

these policies may have, and wherever possible, create safety nets to safeguard the child and
include provisions to ensure that the child’s development is considered as part of the policy
formulation.
It is only through involvement and coordination of the various departments that the strategies

that have been outlined in this document can be implemented.
Government of Karnataka will make a concerted effort in the coming decade to pass legislations

and bye-laws to ensure the successful achievement of the listed targets. It will also establish
monitoring cells in each department and open a budgetary line specifically for the State Action

Plan to ensure implementation of the various strategies. Efforts will also be made to integrate the
monitoring cells established in each department, and bring them under the purvey of a single

committee or authority. This will improve coordination amongst departments through the

existing monitoring cells, reduce duplication of efforts, and increase efficiency.

The various monitoring cells will include among their responsibilities, setting up of
infrastructure to ensure smooth delivery of services, continuous monitoring of the targets, and

assessment of the roadblocks. They shall also generate reports which can be used for tracking
purposes.

Primary Departments:

Department Of Women and Child Development: The DWCD will provide overall guidance in
the implementation of the State Action Plan and serve as the nodal agency to ensure coordination

between the various departments for the effective implementation of Action Plan. In addition, it
shall supervise the continued implementation of 1CDS with a view to the reduction of

malnutrition among children and the spread of pre-school education. It shall provide for more
Anganwadi Centres and a sufficient number of Anganwadi workers. These AWWs will take care

of the monitoring of the growth and health of the child, and ensure effective pre-school education

as well as ensure implementation of schemes like Bhagaylakshmi and Sabala which cater to
adolescent girls.

The DWCD shall also be involved in Child protection, working closely with the Police and the
judiciary
Department Of Health: The Department Of Health and Family Welfare shall work in close
conjunction with the Department of Women and Child Development, to safeguard the health of

children in the 0-6 age groups, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating mothers. The
ASHA's and the ANM’s trained by the department of Health shall institute safe practices to be

followed during pregnancy, ensure adequate nutrition provided to the mother and facilitate
institutional delivery of the child. Post delivery the health workers will work in coordination with

the AWWs to assess the physical and mental development of the child and ensure that he/she is

receiving adequate levels of nutrition. The AWWs, ASHA’s , ANM’s and the doctors at the
PHC’s shall have a monthly meeting at the block level for reporting and monitoring purposes.

Primary
Departments

Secondary
Departments

Department Of Women and Child
Development

RDPR

Department of Urban Development
Department Of Health

Department Of Education

Police
Department Of Municipal Admin
Department Of Disabled Welfare

Department Of Social Welfare

Department Of Labor

Monitoring for the State Action Plan

The monitoring and supervision of the state action plan shall be carried out on a half yearly level
by an ACS committee. This committee will meet and take stock of the progress towards

achievement of the targets set out in the strategies. They will also be appraised of the

impediments in the implementation of the various schemes and strategies and

suggests

modifications that will be required to improve implementation. The constitution of the

committee will be as given below:

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ACS

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For the monitoring and reporting requirements of the state action plan a monitoring cell shall be
set up. This cell will serve as the Secretariat for the above committee. This monitoring cell shall

consist of a Joint Director, an Assitant Director and clerk. This cell will collate information from
various departments with a view to ensure implementation of the various strategies proposed in

the State Action Plan. It will also play a coordinating role to ..The JD will also liaise with the
various associated departments in order to ensure fulfilment of the various targets set down in the

state action plan, by ensuring that the infrastructure, personnel and the budgetary requirements
are being met.

Implementation Mechanism
Child Protection
To ensure that children of every age group are provided protection adequate implementation and

monitoring mechanisms should be put in place. At the state level a State Child Protection Unit

will be set up. This committee is expected to have 5-7 members by 2012. This unit will monitor
and supervise all activities and plan convergence with the other Departments associated with
child protection, such as the Department Of Labor and the Department Of Education.

At a district level, a District Child Protection Unit will be set up. This unit will be responsible
for all measures taken to safeguard the rights of the child. The District Child Labour Project
Society and the proposed District Child Protection Units should ensure convergence in its

activities. Both the units are recommended to be established under single roof at the district
level. The revised action plan for the elimination of child labour is also recommending the same:

The Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Director. DWCD of the respective districts should ensure
this.

Child Labor Budget
The budget for child labor has been estimated considering the opportunities and limitations
existing for finding the required resources. The estimate has been made pragmatically so as to
ensure proper and efficient utilization of resources.
Estimates of District Child Labour Elimination Project Societies Budget
70,00,000
60,00,000
50,00,000
■ Capital Costs

40,00,000

Program Costs

30,00,000

■ Operational Costs
g Personnel costs

20,00,000

10,00,000



■ i ■ I ■

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Costs

Year 1

Year 2

Personnel

354,000

Operational

0

Year 7

Year 5

Year 6

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Total
(‘000)

371,700

390,285

409,799

430,289

451,804

474,393

2,882.3

204,000

206.040

208,100

210.181

212,283

214,406

216,550

1,471.6

Program

3,122,000

4,683,890

4,760,968

4,840,331

4,922,073

5,006,301

5,360,621

32,696.2

Capital

160.000

Total per
district

3,840,000

Year 4

160.0

5,261,630

5,359,354

5,460,31 1

5,564,645

5,672,51 1

6,051,564

37,050.1

Total for 30
districts
(000,000)

115.2

157.9

163.8

160.8

166.9

1,111.5

181.6

170.2

Karnataka State Resource Centre on Child Labour (KSRCCL)

1

2,50,00,000

2,00,00,000
Overhead

1,50,00,000

■ Capital Costs

Program Costs

1,00,00,000

IB Operational Costs

■ Personnel costs
50,00,000

0

I 111111
Year 1

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 4

Year 6

Year 5

Year 7

Year 6

3,072,000 3,379,200 3,717,120 4,088,832 4,497,715 4,947,487
390,845
383,181
368,302
375,668
361,080
Operational 354,000

Personnel

Year 7

Total (‘000)

5,442,235 29,144.6
398,661

2,631.7

Program

15,589,000^ 15,692,080 14,450,566 13,316,102 13,022,181 13,251,237 13,150,337 98,471.5

Capital

580,000

Total
KSRCCL

19,595

19,432.86

18,535.99

17,780.60

17.903.08

18,589.57

18.991.23

130,247.83

203,760

192.115

181,564

179,443

182,575

185,110

1,31 1.68

cooo)
Operational
187,1 10
Overhead
KSCLEPS
Budget for
30 districts

134,982.11 582,970.8

556,079.64 533,418.06 537,092.31 557,687.07 569,736.99 3,907,434.87

(‘000)

Sources of Budget for CLE Action Plan: 2010 - 2017

25,00,00,000

20,00,00,000

® Req. from GoK

15,00,00,000

KSRCCL

n Cost Sharing for CLRBC

10,00,00,000

: NCLP

5,00,00,000

Year 1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5 Yearb Year?

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year?

Total
(‘000)

NCLP Fund
Available
8,636,000 8.636,000
with 17
Districts*

8,636,000

8,636,000

8,636,000

8,636,000

8,636,000

60,452

Cost sharing
for CLRBC
28,732,200 57,464,400
(DoE/SSA,
NCLP)

57,464,400 57,464,400 57,464,400 57,464,400 57,464,400 373,518.6

Mobilization
2,700,000
from ext.
Source for

1,452,000

Year 1

Year 2

1,320,000

0

0

0

0

5,472

KSRCCL
Budget req.
from GoK
94,913,910 110,064,620 111,956,332 115,671,104 118,921,498 122,847,060 134,622,885 808,997.41
for action
plan

* Excluding school budget

With respect to the budget for 2011-2013, as per the revised action plan , Rs 11.5 crore as per the

revised action plan 20110-1017 (subject to approval) should be spent from Dept of Labour
towards the activities for the elimination of child labour in the state.

Monitoring Framework:

Process Indicator

Target

I ibour

Achieved

Financial Outlay

Disbursed

Amount
Current estimate
of CL
Number

of

inspections

made
Number of child

labour

cases

detected

Number of child
labourers
released and
rehabilitated in
transit/

rehabilitation

homes

Number

of

cases

filed

against
employers

Number of
establishments
running full time
balawadis/
number of such

institutions

up

in

set

worker-

rich settlements
Number of
establishments
implementing
statutory
minimum
wages, working
hours and
leave
entitlements,
health and
safety
measures,

social

security

measures

of

Number
rehabilitated

child

labourers

obtaining

vocational skills

H

Karnataka State Action Plan for children 2011-20
W-

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?W'<’"

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Strategies and Timeline
Health

J

Health
Maternal Health
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
The 2003-10 SPAC focused on reducing maternal mortality rate from 213 per lakh live births

(acc to SRS conducted in 2004-06) to 100 per lakh in 2012. It aimed to increase the percentage

of institutional deliveries from 51.1% in 2001 to 75% in 2010 and achieve 100% of deliveries by
trained persons. In line with this, the State has achieved 93% institutional deliveries in 2010??.

Some important strategies employed to achieve these figures were increasing the coverage of the
Reproductive and Health Care programme and spreading awareness about contraceptive methods
and the need for spacing of pregnancies.

According to available statistics, the maternal mortality rate has reduced from 228 per lakh live
births in 2001-03 to 213 (as per SRS 2004-06). In 2002-2004 (as per DLHS 2) institutional

delivery was 57.9% (as per DLHS 2) and it increased to 65.1% in 2007-08 (as per DLHS3).
Institutional delivery is 86.4% (CES 2009). Ante Natal registration is 91.9% (CES 2009) and

three Ante Natal checkups are 91.3% (CES 2009). The percentage of safe deliveries is 88.4%.

Way forward: Strategies
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards maternal health and the strategies to
achieve the same.

Objective: Raise awareness on the right age for pregnancy and the need for family planning.

Strategy

Responsible
department

Conduct campaigns to reduce incidences of early marriages and

DWCD

thus delay first pregnancy

Disseminate information to young couples about contraceptives

Department of Health

and make them accessible to buy.

and

Family

Welfare,

DWCD
Engage the local community organizations such as SHGs and

DWCD,

NGOs to increase awareness about the need to delay the first

Samakhya

Mahila

pregnancy and space pregnancies.

Objective: To increase the number of women who have access to institutional health care

before, during and after delivery.
Strategy

Responsible

department
Ensure early identification and prompt registration of pregnant

DWCD, Department of

women with complications

Health

and

Family

Welfare

Train Anganwadi workers to monitor the health status of

DWCD

expectant mothers and to provide information on necessary care

to be taken during pregnancy namely nutrition, immunization,
and health check up for the mother as well as child.

Ensure availability of well equipped health care centres, with

Department of Health

obstetric facilities within a comfortable distance

and Family Welfare

Ensure that emergency obstetric care is available around the clock

Department of Health

in all taluk level hospitals and all CHC’s.

and Family Welfare

Work on developing transportation facilities to reach health care

Department of Health

centres, particularly for communities located in remote areas

and

Family

Welfare,

Department

of

u
Transport (Bus pass)
In case of remote locations, ensure availability of specialized

Department of Health

services and experts on a regular basis.

and Family Welfare

Doctors and Nurses will be given a difficult area allowance to ensure

achievement of this goal/strategy
Ensure broader adoption of schemes such as Janani Surakhsha

Department Of Health

Yojana and Thayi Bhagya Yojana which are designed to promote

and Family Welfare

institutional deliveries

Objective: To improve the health and nutrition status among women of reproductive age and
expectant and nursing mothers

Strategy

Responsible
department

Ensure access to supplementary nutrition programmes to a larger

DWCD, Department Of

number of women and adolescent girls

Health

and

Family

Welfare
Run awareness programmes and community engagements to

DWCD. Department Of

emphasize need for nutritional requirements of pregnant women

Health

and nursing mothers.

Welfare

Address the nutritional status of adolescent girls through focused

DWCD, Department Of

engagement to reduce instances of malnourishment which could

Health

later affect their reproductive health

Welfare

Prioritize treatment of serious diseases such as tuberculosis etc

Department Of Health

in pregnant women

and Family Welfare

Continuously monitor the intake of the essential nutrients and

DWCD, Department Of

micro-nutrients through regular visits by the Anganwadi workers

Health

and

and

and

Family

Family

Family

H

and ANM and ASHA workers

Welfare

Enrol all pregnant women and lactating mothers in Anganwadi

DWCD, Department Of

centres and provide them with regular immunization

Health

and

Family

Welfare
Address high incidence of Anaemia by providing iron

DWCD. Department Of

supplements.

Health

and

Family

Welfare
Leverage Mobile technology to provide reminders and updates to

Department Of Health

pregnant mothers based on their date of pregnancy on nutrition.

and Family Welfare

immunization and best practices

Way forward: Timeline

Overall goals

2011-2013

2013-16

2017-2020

• Reduce MMR to 100

• Reduce MMR to 90

• Reduce MMR to 70

Access

99%

99% • Ensure

• Ensure
institutional

institutional

deliveries

deliveries

to • Well-equipped

99%

• Sustain

institutional deliveries

health • Continuous upgrade of • Continuous upgrade of

institutional

care centres at PHC

facilities

health care

levels

emergencies and other

emergencies and other

complications

complications

to

address

facilities

to

address

• Improved
transportation

and

• Increased number of • Increased

infrastructure in case

local

of remote locations

villages

• Ensure

100

%

• Sustain

experts

in

of

local experts in villages

• Sustain

100%

number

registration

100%
of

u
registration

Improvement

of

registration

of

expectant

mothers

in

expectant mothers in

expectant mothers in

the first 3 months of

the first 3 months of

the first 3 months of

pregnancy

pregnancy

pregnancy

• Ensure 100% coverage • Ensure 100% coverage • Sustain 100% coverage

in Health and

of pregnant

nutrition

through

women

ASHA

and

AN M's workers

of pregnant women

of pregnant women

• Reduce % of women • Reduce % women with

with Anaemia to 5%

Anaemia to 0%

• Reduce % of women

with Anaemia to 10%
currently the level of

anemia is 55.9%(
Awareness
generation

• Multi-channel campaigns on the need for delayed pregnancy , use of

contraceptives

• Awareness programmes on the need for nutrition and other supplements
• Engagement with local NGOs and SHGs

Neo-natal care
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
The 2003-10 SPAC dealt with neo natal care under Child Health and the Early Childhood Care,
Development and Birth Registration sub-theme. Under the first sub theme, the objectives were to

reduce IMR from 55 (per 1000 live births) in 2002 to less than 30 in 2010. The Plan intended to
reduce NMR from 37.1 in 2002 to less than 15 in 2010. The focus under Early Childhood Care,
Development and Birth Registration was to develop programmes that aimed at the holistic

development of children in the 0-3 years age group and ensure that 80% of children in this age
group were covered by these programmes by 2010.

H
According to the available statistics, the IMR in Karnataka is 41 (As per SRS 2009) and the Neo­

mortality rate is 24(SRS 2007). Only 38.2%(CES 2009) of children are breastfed within one hour
of birth and 38.2% (CES 2009)of children less than 6 months were exclusively breastfed.
Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards neonatal care and the strategies to
achieve the same.
Objective: Provide access to medical facilities and expertise to Neonates
Responsible

Strategy

department

of Health

Provide neo natal health care facilities in hospitals and family

Department

health units across all PHC’s.

and Family Welfare

Ensure that at least one hospital within reasonable distance of

Department of Health

backward areas has a functioning neo natal intensive care unit

and Family Welfare

Train Female Health Workers (HW-F), and ASHAs to handle

DWCD, Department of

common neo natal health problems. Anganawadi workers

Health

(AWW) to be trained to detect and inform parents and health

Welfare

and

Family

workers about these problems.
Provide information to expectant mothers on common health

DWCD, Department of

problems of neonates and information on where and how to

Health

access health care services

Welfare

and

Family

Objective: Ensure child has access to breast milk and adequate nutrition

Strategy

Responsible
department

Ensure mothers breastfeed the child with 1 hour of birth during

Department of Health

institutional and assisted deliveries

and

Family

Welfare,

DWCD

Encourage mothers to have a feeding timetable which the

DWCD, Department of

Anganwadi workers can use to monitor the frequency of feeding

Health

and

Family

Welfare
Ensure that AWW and ASHA’s and ANM’s monitor the nutrition

DWCD, Department of

status of the new born during their regular visits to homes and

Health

take necessary steps to deal with any instances of improper

Welfare

and

Family

nutrition

Way forward: Timeline
2011-2013
Overall goal

Ensure

2013-16

2017-2020

• Reduce IMR to 30

• Reduce IMR to 25

• Reduce IMR to 20

• Reduce NMR to 22

• Reduce NMR to 20

• Reduce NMR to 15

• Provide breastfeeding • Ensure 75% children • Ensure

breastfeeding

timetable

of child

mothers

all

to

immediately

90% children

breastfed immediately

breastfed

after birth

after birth

after delivery

Ensure

80% • Ensure

immediately

90% children

• Ensure 70% children

children

breastfed

breastfed immediately

breastfed

after birth

after birth

immediately

immediately

after birth

Access

to • Well-equipped

health • Continuous upgrade of • Continuous upgrade of

institutional

care

health care

PHCs and CHCs

centres

in

all

• Improved
transportation

and

infrastructure in case

facilities

to

address

facilities

to

address

emergencies and other

emergencies and other

complications

complications

• Increased number of • Increased

local

experts

in

number

of

local experts in villages

of remote locations

villages

Awareness

• Capacity building of ANM. ASHA AWW on Neonatal care

generation

• Awareness programmes on the challenges of neonatal care to mothers
• Continuous awareness about immunization to the mothers

Objective: To put in place systems to facilitate early detection of disabilities and provision of
appropriate healthcare to children with disabilities.

Strategy

Responsible department

Development of a checklist that can be used by village level

Department

functionaries particularly AWW's. ANM’s and VRW’s to

Welfare

of

Disabled

of

Disabled

of

Disabled

Disabled

enable them to flag children who are potentially disabled.

Develop training modules to train AWWs, ANMs, VRWs,

Department

and doctors (particularly pediatricians)

Welfare

Develop and annually update a resource directory of referral

Department

service providers

Welfare

Conduct training programmes for village level functionaries.

Department

of

The training programmes can be conducted at governmental

Welfare,

ICDS-DWCD,

and non-governmental service provider institutions

RCH-Department of Health

and Family Welfare
Develop a mass media plan to increase awareness on benefits

Department

of early detection of disability

Welfare

of

Disabled

Objective: To ensure early detection of disabilities and to ensure appropriate healthcare to
children with disabilities.

Strategy
Train doctors to screen new born babies

Responsible department

Department of Health and

Family Welfare
Screen all newborns (institutional delivery cases) with a view

Department of Health and

to identifying disabilities

Family Welfare

Extend Suvarna Arogya Chaitanya to Anganwadis. Ensure

Department of Health and

that the following specialists are included in the above health

Family Welfare

camps : developmental pediatrician, ophthalmologist, ENT,
orthopedic

Ensure that each child has a growth chart. A copy of the

Department of Health and

growth chart can be give to the parent. The primary

Family Welfare, Department

responsibility for maintaining the growth chart will lie with

of

the AWW and ANM. The doctors who come as part of

Development

and

Women

Child

Suvarna Arogya Chaitanya will also make their remarks on
this chart.

Review growth charts at monthly /quarterly block district and

Department of Health and

state level meetings

Family Welfare, Department

of

Women

and

Child

development, Department of
Disabled Welfare

Conduct mass media based awareness campaigns

Department

of

Disabled

of

Disabled

Welfare

Using the VRW conduct parental awareness camps to enable

Department

parents to detect potential disabilities

Welfare

Objective: To establish structures that ensure early intervention for children identified

with disabilities
Establishment of Early intervention centers at Taluk level for

Department Of Health and

support and treatment of children who have been referred

Family Welfare

from the Anganwadis

Funds for these centres can be allocated from NRHM and by
the Department of Disabled Welfare

Train required personnel in areas such as Physiotherapy,

Department

occupational therapy, speech and auditorial therapy

Welfare

Provide cash/kind incentives to parents to bring their children

Department

for treatment in the early intervention centres eg. Subsidized

Welfare

of

Disabled

of

Disabled

bus pass, coupons for meals

Provide simple but effective aids at the early intervention

Department Of Health and

centres

Family
Department

and

Welfare

of

Disabled

Of

Disabled

Welfare
Develop low cost technology for differently abled children

Department

Welfare and Department of

Science and Technology
Ensure regular Check ups of children identified with

Department

Of

Health,

disability. This will be ensured by the by the ANM’s and

Department

of

Disabled

VRW’s.

Welfare

Ensure all newly constructed hospital buildings are equipped

Department Of Health and

with infrastructure that make them accessible to children with

Family Welfare

disabilities.

Run Awareness campaigns within communities in order to

Department

sensitise the community towards the needs of differently

Welfare

Of

Disabled

abled children
Continued efforts to ensure that prevention of disabilities

Department Of Health and

through immunization and other preventive measures is

Family Welfare

strengthened

Way forward: Timeline
Overall goal

2011-2013

2013-16

Ensure Systems • Develop

in

place

enable
detection

to

early

a

Introduce the

2017-2020
• Ensure

that

comprehensive

checklist to the

checklist is used

checklist to identify

anganwadis and train

identify disabilities

potential disabilities in

AWWs in its use

children

• Develop

training

modules

to

train

village

level

functionaries



Train AWWs,



a

to

Train AWWs,
ANM’s and ASHA’s

ANM’s and ASHA’s

in the care and

in the care and

rehabilitation of

rehabilitation of

children with special

children with special
• Create

the

needs.

needs.
resource

directory for referral

Update the resource

service providers

directory on an



directory on an
annual basis

annual basis

Conduct awareness
• Develop a mass media

plan to be used for
conducting awareness

campaigns to

sensitise

Update the resource



Conduct awareness
campaigns to sensitise

communities

communities

Access

to • Neo natal screening of • Neo natal screening of • Neonatal screening of
50% of all institutional

70% all institutional

90%

health care

deliveries

deliveries

deliveries
that

• Ensure

institutional

all

institutional

all
all

anganwadis

are

• Ensure

Arogya

covered

this

anganwadis are covered

Chaitanya to include

scheme

Anganwadis

• Increase the number of • Increase the number of

• Expand coverage of

Suvarna

• Increase the number of

doctors

in

health

camps,

to

include

experts

in

disability

detection, rehab and

care.
• Ensure

provision

of

growth chart to every
child

in

experts

under

that

under this scheme

based

on

based

experts

on

requirement

requirement

Ensure appropriate usage

appropriate of growth chart to
usage of growth chart measure the development

• Ensure

to

measure

the of child

development of child.

the

Anganwadi Centre

Access

to • Early

• Continuous

intervention • Continuous

of

augmentation

rehabilitation

centres should be set

augmentation

and care.

up at a Taluk level

facilities and addition

facilities and addition

of experts

of experts

• Deploy personnel in

• Deploy

intervention

intervention

• Train

personnel

in

areas

relating

to

disability management

• Development

and

provision of low cost

of

centers.

personnel

in

centers.

Ensure yearly training

Ensure yearly training

modules to augment

modules

skills.

skills

• Development

to

augment

and • Development

and

provision of low cost

provision of low cost

effective assistive aids

effective assistive aids

effective assistive aids

Awareness

• Capacity building of ANM, ASHA AWW, VRW on disabled welfare

generation

• Awareness programmes on the challenges of disabled welfare for parents

Early childcare
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
The 2003-10 SPAC focused on developing holistic programmes for children in the age group of
0 to 3 years and ensuring that 100% of children in this age group have access to ICDS by 2010.

ICDS were meant to cover all relevant areas, including health, nutrition, immunization,
education etc. The focus was on strengthening the ICDS network to ensure that its services reach
a sizeable population, with a focus on reaching communities situated in remote areas.
With respect to nutrition, the focus was on reducing moderate malnutrition in children and severe

malnutrition in children to one third of the present level (severe malnutrition was at 6.2% in

2001). The plan intended to achieve this through promoting awareness of breastfeeding,
providing children with regular doses of vitamins (Vitamin A) and micronutrients (iodine, iron),
improving food distribution to BPL families through PDS to tackle food insecurity and including
nutrition as an important component in programmes for pre-primary students and in GO and

NGO programmes.

The number of beneficiaries through Anganwadis has increased from 12,12,000 children aged 03 years and 12,22,000 children aged 3-6 years in 2001 to 17,75.881 and 16,03,856 children

d
respectively in 2010. This covers 74.70% of children in the 0-3 age group and 67.90% of the 3-6
age group. The number of Anganwadi centres has gone up from 40,301 in 2001 to 63,377 in

2010.

While severe malnutrition levels in Karnataka have fallen to 0.3% in 2009 (according to ICDS

data), there is sill scope for improvement. ,. According to NFHS (3), the percentage of
underweight children (under 3 years) is 41.1; stunted children (under 3 years) is 38% and wasted

children (under 3 years) is 18.9; 17.6% children have moderate anaemia, and 1.9% have severe

anaemia, Given these figures, it is important to ensure the effective implementation of nutrition
programmes and work towards strategies which would effectively tackle problems related to

nutrition.
Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards early childcare and the strategies to
achieve the same.

Objective: Ensure betterment in the nutritional status of children

Responsible

Strategy

department
Ensure universal reach of the Supplementary Nutrition

DWCD

Programme

Provide information to parents and care givers about the

DWCD

nutritional requirement of children

Establish special centres in district hospitals, medical

DWCD, Department of

colleges and child health institutions to deal specifically

Health

with instances of child malnourishment

Welfare

AWW’s

should conduct regular weighing and constant

growth monitoring of children. The AWW’s should educate

DWCD

and

Family

the parents bout nutritional needs of the child.

Establish tertiary care unit centres for acutely sick and

Department of Health

malnourished children in child health institutions, district

and Family Welfare

hospitals and medical colleges

Objective: Ensure child has access to breast milk
Strategy

Responsible
department

Urge mothers to adopt exclusive breastfeeding for their

DWCD, Department of

infants for the first 6 months during mothers meetings

Health

and

Family

Welfare

During mothers meetings, educate mothers to compulsorily

DWCD, Department of

provide solid or semi-solid food, in addition to breast milk

Health

for infants in the 624 months age group,. At 24 months

Welfare

and

Family

breast feeding should be stopped.

Encourage mothers to have a feeding timetable which the

DWCD, Department of

Anganwadi workers and ASHA workers can use to monitor

Health

the frequency of feeding

Welfare

Ensure that AWW and ASHA workers monitor the nutrition

DWCD, Department of

status of the new born during their regular visits to homes

Health

and take necessary steps to deal with any instances of

Welfare

and

and

Family

Family

improper nutrition

Objective: Ensure child receives all essential immunization

Strategy

Responsible
department

Conduct awareness programmes to ensure that the parents

Department

of

Health and Family

are informed about all the essential immunization

Welfare, DWCD
Conduct immunization camps on fixed days in the villages

Department

to address specific issues ; Ensure there is wide publicity

Health and Family

given

in

villages

to

any

upcoming

of

Welfare, DWCD

immunization

programmes

Provide an immunization checklists to all the parents that

Department

are then checked by Anganwadi workers and ANM during

Health and Family

their regular visits to the mothers

Welfare, DWCD

Leverage mobile technology to provide regular reminders

DWCD,

based on the immunization schedule of the child

Department

of

of

Health and Family
Welfare
DWCD

Disseminate information about immunization through mass

media

Objective: To reduce incidences of anaemia and vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies in
children

Responsible

Strategy

department

Ensure that all children under 5 years receive oral regular doses of

DWCD, Department of

vitamin A

Health

Family

and

Welfare

Increase the use of iodised salt, especially in areas which

Department

of

are prone to goitre

and

Supplies,

Civil

Food

DWCD, Department of

Health

Family

and

Welfare

Ensure consumption of iron and folic acid tablets by expectant

Department of Health

mothers and adolescent girls

and

Welfare,

Family

DWCD. Department Of
Education
Promote consumption of green leafy vegetables and fruits by

DWCD, Department of

generating awareness about their benefits and including them in

Health

meals provided at anganwadis

Welfare

and

Family

Objective: Ensure early childcare for all children between 0-6 years
Strategy

Responsible
department

Scale Anganwadis to ensure coverage among all communities

DWCD

with population more than 150

Work with local panchayats to provide alternate forms of child

DWCD

care in hamlets with population less than 300.

Expand creche services under programmes like Rajiv Gandhi

Department

National creche scheme and NREGAto support institutional care.

Panchayati
Rural

of
Raj

and

Development,

Department of Labour,

Municipalities
Work with the local panchayats to ensure sufficient infrastructure

DWCD, Department of

for the Anganwadis in all villages

Pane hay at i Ra j

Ensure that the Anganwadis have access to clean drinking water,

DWCD, Department of

clean toilets and efficient waste management infrastructure

Panchayati Raj, Public

Works Department

Objective: Ensure holistic child development as part of early childcare

Responsible

Strategy

department

Ensure that all anganwadi centres have own buildings

funded by the state.
DWCD

Ensure that the Anganwadis are child-friendly and provide
spaces for physical recreation and creative arts

DWCD

Prioritize preschool education by adopting initiatives such
as providing teaching and learning tools, scheduling
separate time slots for teaching and training of workers

DWCD

Engage SDMC in monitoring the Anganwadis to ensure that

the children can be enrolled in the schools

Engage the

community,

especially the

mothers,

Bal

DWCD,

in

Vikas Samithi

monitoring the effective functioning of the Anganwadis

Objective: Ensure early identification of severe or persistent health problems

Strategy

Responsible

department
Conduct quality health check up at AWC once in every 3 months

DWCD, Department of

by involving private doctors and medical officers

Health
Welfare

Include Anganwadi children in Suvarna Arogya Chaitanya; a

DWCD

and

Family

programme for yearly check-up of school children
Department Of Health

Ensure ANM's regularly conduct health checkups of children.

and Family Welfare

Ensure availability of trained doctors and medical facilities at

Department of Health

PHCs

and Family Welfare

****Put present status

*** Use as per new WHO growth standards

Way forward: Timeline
2011-2013
Overall goal

5, • Reduce,

under

severe malnutrition to

0.2% (post april 10th)

0.15%

moderate • Reduce

under nutrition to 10%

malnutrition to 0%

• Reduce moderate under

moderate

under nutrition to 5%

nutrition to 0%
• Ensure

100%

of

• Ensure

80%

of • Ensure

90%

of

children access to early

children

access

to

children

access

to

childcare

early childcare

early childcare

• Ensure 70% children • Ensure 80% children • Ensure 90% children

breastfeeding

breastfed

of child

for first 6 months

Immunization

5, • Reduce, under 5, severe

under

severe malnutrition to

• Reduce

Ensure

• Reduce U5MR to 25

• Reduce U5MR to 35

• Reduce U5MR to 45
• Reduce,

2017-2020

2013-16

• Ensure
infants

exclusively

exclusively

breastfed

70% of the • Ensure 90% of the • Ensure

receive

all

check

and

infants

receive

exclusively

for first 6 months

for first 6 months

essential immunization
cross

breastfed

all

essential immunization

infants

100% of the
receive

all

essential immunization

Lakshmi Narayan

mobile

• Leverage
technology

share

to

best

reminders.
practice

Access

to • Well-equipped health • Continuous upgrade of • Continuous upgrade of

institutional

care

health care

taluks (get numbers)

centres

all

in

facilities

address

to

facilities

to

address

emergencies and other

emergencies and other

complications

complications

• Improved
and • Increased number of • Increased

transportation

infrastructure in case

local experts in CHC’s

number

of

local experts in CHC’s

remote

of

how

locations(ask

many buses required

and on what basis?)
Nutrition

• Reduce % of children • Reduce % of children • Reduce % of children
with Anaemia to 50%

with Anaemia to 40%

Early childcare • Ensure Anganwadis in • Provide
for all

all

communities

for

welfare

small/

population of 150

alternate
centres

dispersed

comm unities( lesser

• Provide

childcare

services in all creches

than 300)

in

with Anaemia to 20%

universal

• Provide
access

of

childcare

across

early

the

state
• Ensure all Anganwadis

are child-friendly and
• Provide

clean

toilet

and drinking water in
all Anganwadis

complete with the right
infrastructure

Holistic
Development

• Strengthen Bal vikas
Samitis -

monitoring

adoption

• Ensure

of • Ensure

curriculum

learning

comprising mothers to

across all Anganwadis

the

Anganwadis

existing

preschool

Anganwadis and other

SDMCs

need

work

to

in

coordination with Bala

Samithi

Vikas

synergies with primary

ensure the delivery of

education

pre-school

so

capacity

across all

childcare centres
• Engage the

curriculum to ensure

• Conduct

curriculum

across all Anganwadis • Achieve

• Further improve the

of

comprehensive learning

comprehensive

committees

monitor

adoption

to

100%

conversion

from

all

childcare

centres

to

school

education

transition

to

primary school

building trainings to

Anganwadi • Achieve

100%

workers to teach the

transition

from

children

Anganwadis

to

the

Achieve 100% transition

schools.

from Anganwadis to

schools.

Adolescent Health
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The Draft National Policy of Children (June 2001) recognizes adolescents as a vulnerable age

group because of the variety of pressures they face (to become economically productive, family
pressures due to child marriage, health risks due to unsafe sexual practices and increased risk of
H1V/AIDS) and lack of programmes that specifically target this age group. Taking this as a point

of reference, the 2003-10 SPAC focused on creating concrete programmes that would address

the various issues adolescents faced and provide them with training and support to help them
deal with the same. The aim was to introduce these programmes during the beginning of the plan

period and extend the coverage of these programmes to 100% of adolescents by the end of the

plan period (2010). It also aimed at increasing the literacy rate (in adults) from 67.04% in 2001
to more than 85% by 2010.

Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government's key objectives towards adolescent health and the strategies

to achieve the same.
Objective: Improve the nutritional and health status of adolescent

DWCD. , Department

girls Reduce the incidence of early marriages to control

of Health and Family

deterioration of girl’s health due to early marriage and early

Welfare

pregnancies
Monitor nutritional status of girls and provide provisions for

DWCD, Department of

supplementing available nutrition

Health

and

Family

Welfare

Objective: To regularly monitor the health of adolescents and enable access to basic health care
services

Strategy

Responsible
department

Conduct awareness programmes about health and nutrition for the

Department of

benefit of adolescents

Health and Family

Welfare. DWCD,
Department of
Education

Provide regular health check up at schools to monitor the health

Department of

and nutritional status of adolescents

Health and Family

Welfare,

Department of

Education
Conduct awareness programmes about HIV/AIDS and sexually

Department of

transmitted diseases for adolescents to promote safe sexual

Health and Family

practices and reduce the occurrence of these diseases in adolescents

Welfare

Way forward: Timeline

Overall goal

2011-2013

2013-16

2017-2020

Ensure access to

Ensure access to

Ensure access to

essential

Access

healthcare

healthcare

essential

healthcare

essential

services to 70% of all

services to 80% of all

services to 90% of all

adolescents

adolescents

adolescents

• Achieve 60% adoption

• Achieve 80% adoption

to • Conduct specific health

institutional

programmes addressing

health care

the

holistic

needs of

of

the

programmes

health

of

the

health

programmes

youth

Awareness

• Awareness programmes on the ill-effects of child marriages, early pregnancy

generation

• Awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS and the measures to prevent the disease
• Awareness programmes on service availability of MTP services and Sneha clinic

Water and sanitation
Water and sanitation
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The 2003-10 SPAC focused on ensuring universal access to water supply, especially drinking
water supply. Attention was paid to regions where access to water was particularly difficult, for
instance, rural and semi-rural communities, tribal communities and habitations where scheduled

caste communities reside. One important goal was to provide 55 litres of water per capita per day
for every person and sustain this level of water supply once it was achieved.

Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards water and sanitation and the

strategies to achieve the same.
Objective: To ensure universal access to the minimum per capita water supply of 40 litres per
capita per person.

Strategy

Responsible

department
Undertake construction of water reservoirs in areas which do not

Department

have easy access to water

Water Resources

Invest in technology to purify water and make it potable, especially

Department

in areas where available water is not potable

Water Resources

Encourage methods of water conservation such as rain water

Department

harvesting

Water Resources,

of

of

of

Department

of

panchayati

Raj

Rural

and

Development,
Department

of

School Education

Reduce contamination of drinking water sources by enforcing strict

Revenue

legislation on situating industries away from such sources and

department.

encouraging them to adopt water purification methods

Department

of

Industries

Objective: To ensure all households and neighbourhoods have access to clean and usable

sanitation facilities

Strategy

Responsible department

Provide financial assistance for construction of toilets in

Department of Panchayati Raj,

houses for BPL families .

Rural

Water

Supply

and

Sanitation Agency
Undertake construction of shared latrines for the

Department of Panchayati Raj,

community in areas where the percentage of households

Rural

with access to sanitation is very low

Sanitation Agency

Ensure proper maintenance of existing community toilets

Department of Panchayati Raj,
Rural

Water

Water

Sanitation

bodies,

Supply

Supply

Agency,

and

and

Municipal

Department of Urban

Development

Involve Panchayats in the management and maintenance

Department of Panchayati Raj,

of local water sources in the village

Rural

Water

Supply

and

Sanitation Agency

Involve Panchayats in ensuring effective sanitation and

Department of Panchayati Raj,

Water

Rural

waste management infrastructure in the village

Supply

and

Sanitation Agency

Objective: To ensure schools and anganwadi centres are equipped with water and sanitation
facilities:
Responsible department

Strategy

Department

of

Undertake construction of toilets in anganwadi centres and

DWCD,

schools as per the norms laid down in The Manual of

Panchayati Raj. Rural Water

Preventive and Social Medicine. Ensure separate toilets for

Supply and Sanitation Agency

girls.

Department

of

Ensure availability of drinking water in schools and AWCs

DWCD,

and separate water facilities for toilets (24 hours availability

Panchayati Raj, Rural Water

of water)

Supply and Sanitation Agency

Undertake proper maintenance of existing toilets and ensure

DWCD,

availability of water and maintain the cleanliness of toilets

Panchayati Raj, Rural Water

Department

of

Supply and Sanitation Agency,

Department Of Education.

Way forward: Timeline

Overall goal

2017-2020

2013-16

2011-2013

• 90% homes have access • 95% homes have access • 100%

to safe drinking water

to safe drinking water

homes

have

access to safe drinking

water
• 70%

schools

and • 80%

schools

and

anganwadi s have access

anganwadis have access • 90%

to safe drinking water

to safe drinking water

schools

and

anganwadis have access
to safe drinking water

• 60%

villages

have • 70%

villages

have

efficient water and waste

efficient

mgmt, infrastructure

waste

water

and • 80%

mgmt.

infrastructure

efficient

villages

have

water

and

waste

mgmt.

infrastructure
Water

and • Financial assistance to • Implementation of local • Sustain availability and

sanitation in

build

homes

homes

toilets

the

in

rainwater

harvesting

and other practices to

conservation of water

and sanitation

conserve water

• Implementation of local

techniques

purification
to clean water

Water

and • Availability

sanitation

in

schools

and

anganwadis
Water

safe • Implementation of local

• Sustain availability and

and

purification techniques

conservation of water

toilets in all schools and

to clean and conserve

and sanitation

Anganwadis

water

drinking

of
water

and • Efficient

sanitation in

distribution

community

infrastructure

water • Setup of large scale rain

• Sustain availability and

harvesting

conservation of water

water
to

the

facilities

and sanitation

local community

• Setup and maintenance

of community toilets

Awareness
generation

• Disseminate information on common water borne diseases in children such as

diarrhoea and steps to prevent them
• Ensure water sources are kept clean and water is not left stagnant

Strategies and Timeline
Education
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Education
Primary Education
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The goals in the 2003-10 SPAC for education focused on ensuring universal education. In order
to achieve this, the state government focused on providing pre-primary educational facilities to
every child in the age group of 3-6 and implementing Right to Education Act to achieve
universal enrolment and retention up to 8 years of schooling for all children. The state

government aimed to reduce the dropout rate at primary and secondary school levels and ensure

that all children complete minimum years of schooling.
In 2008-09, the access ratio for primary school level was 99.53 and 99.14 for upper primary.

Enrolment at the Elementary stage (1st to 8th standard) was at 85.34 percent. The number of out
of school children has decreased from 10.22 lakhs in 2001 (6-14 years age group) to 0.72 lakhs

in 2008 (7-14 years age group). The retention rate for Elementary education stands at 88.22 and
the dropout rate was at 11.78.

Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards primary education and the
strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Ensure all children complete minimum of 8 years of elementary education

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure access to schools within a reasonable distance (within 1

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

km for primary schools and within 3 kms for upper primary
schools)

Provide proper water and sanitation facilities in schools

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan,

CPI, PWD, Department of
Panchayati Raj and Rural

Development

Extend access to schemes meant to reduce dropout rate and

Sarva

improve retention, such as mid day meal schemes, scholarship

Department

and

concessional

fees

for

students

from

disadvantaged

Abhiyan,

Siksha

Social

of

Welfare

backgrounds and girl students etc
Provide access to bridge schools for children who have been out

Sarva

of the formal schooling system for a long time

NCLP, SCLP

Ensure that schools monitor the attendance of children and reach

Sarva

out to the family/community in cases of non-attendance for a

SCERT

Siksha

Siksha

Abhiyan,

Abhiyan,

sustained period

Objective: To strengthen existing systems of education by focusing on quality

Strategy

Responsible department

Regularly monitor quality at the school level

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan,

KSQA, SCERT

Conduct regular training sessions for teachers to keep them

Sarva

updated about recent developments in the field

SCERT, CPI

Monitor educational policy and schemes to ensure systems

Sarva

required to develop core competencies in children are in place

SCERT, NIEPA, KSQA

Ensure the availability of proper infrastructure in schools

CPI, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan,

Ensure the availability of one teacher per class in primary
schools

CPI, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Enhance the quality of teaching by innovating on and
upgrading both learning material and teaching practices

SCERT,

Conduct special programmes for schools which achieved less
than 40% in the previous year's assessment by KSQOA and

Siksha

Siksha

Abhiyan,

Abhiyan,

Sarva

Abhiyan
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Siksha

for Urdu and Marathi medium schools

Regularly check the competencies of students to help evaluate
the quality of education provided in schools

Sarva

Abhiyan,

Siksha

SCERT

Way forward: Timeline

Overall goal

2017-2020

2013-16

2011-2013

• Universalise access to • Ensure universal access • Ensure universal access

school

primary

to

primary

school

primary

• Increase retention rate • Ensure 99% retention • Ensure

rate in primary schools.

to 95%

school

education.

education.

education

to

99%

retention

rate in primary schools.

• Reduce drop out rates • Prevent drop outs at the • Prevent drop outs at the

existing • Ensure 90% of schools • Ensure 99% schools are

• Strengthen

metrics for evaluating
quality

of education,

ensure

and

primary level.

primary level.

to less than 10%

70%

quality

standards

able to meet the quality
standards prescribed

prescribed.

the

meet

schools

of

are able to meet the

quality

required
standards.

Easy access to Ensure
schools

lower

availability
primary

of Monitor the availability Monitor the availability of

schools of schooling facilities in schooling facilities in all

within a 1 KM radius and all districts, and continue districts, and continue to

upper

primary

within

KM

Additionally,
and

strengthen

schools to ensure schooling is ensure

schooling

is

radius. physically accessible for physically accessible for

establish all children.

feeder

all children.

schools.

drinking Ensure

clean

clean

drinking

clean

drinking Ensure

Strengthen

Ensure

infrastructure

water, toilets and barrier water, toilets and barrier water, toilets and barrier

free environments in all free environments in all

schools.

schools.

schools.

free environments in all

Incentive

Ensure effective delivery Monitor the delivery of Monitor the delivery of

schemes

of

schemes

incentive incentive

existing

to

schemes, and universalise ensure all children are ensure

bags

to

all children

are

uniforms. provided uniforms, books.

incentives such as free provided
school

schemes

incentive

scholarships etc.

and books, scholarships etc.

stationary.
Quality

Strengthen

teacher Ensure all teachers meet Ensure all teachers meet

improvement

training

programs the required standards of the required standards of

conducted

presently.

Increase

mid-level standards

training

programs.

quality.

measure

the quality.

established. standards
with

Continue

Institutionalize standards training
to

through

sessions.

teaching ensure

the

through

established.

the Continue with the training
to

sessions.

to

ensure

constant constant improvement.

improvement.

quality.

Ensure

Strengthen the existing Administer

competency

KSQAO

to

measure competency

the Administer

the

competency measurement

acquisition by competencies of children. measurement tests on a tests on a regular basis, to
quality
of
Conduct special programs regular basis, to ensure ensure
children

for schools that achieved quality of education is education is appropriate.
less than 40% in last appropriate.
year’s

assessment.

Continue Continue with

remedial

KSQAO with remedial measures measures, for schools that
for schools that achieve achieve less than 40% in

u
less

than

40%

in

assessments.

assessments.

Secondary education
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The 2003-10 SPAC did not have a separate section on secondary education, instead, all
objectives and programmes relevant to education were grouped under the sub-themes- Education
and Education and Skill Development of Adolescents. Objectives from these two sub-themes
which are relevant to secondary education were:


Bridging all gender and social category gaps by 2010



Making special provisions for meeting the needs of children with disabilities to ensure

they have access to education



Providing facilities such as hostels, residential schools and fee concessions to girl

children and children belonging to SC/ST communities


Bridging the gap between formal and non-formal education while continuing to reach out

to older children who have never been a part of mainstream education


Ensuring the maintenance of quality in education

Way forward: Strategies
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards secondary education and the
strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Ensure universal access to secondary education

Strategy

Responsible department

Upgrade upper primary schools into high schools

Department of Education,

u
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan
Create Model Schools to ensure access to secondary education in

Department of Education,

backward blocks

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Create Model Residential schools to ensure retention of children

Department

belonging to SC, ST and Minority families

Welfare and Department

of

Social

of Education

Ensure that children belonging to vulnerable sections who stay at

Department of Education,

long distances away from school are extended schemes such as

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

the free bicycle scheme which makes access to school easier

Objective: Ensure that schools are equipped with basic facilities

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure availability of basic infrastructure in schools by

Department

constructing new buildings and maintaining existing ones

Sarva

of

Education,

Siksha

Abhiyan,
of

Department

Rural

Development and Panchayati
Raj

Provide adequate water and sanitation facilities to all schools

of

Education,

Siksha

Abhiyan,

Department
Sarva

of

Department

Rural

Development and Panchayati
Raj
Provide hostels for girls and students from SC/ST/OBC

Department

communities

Welfare,

of

Social

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan

Provide furniture and equipment to schools
__________________________________________

Department

of

Education,

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Ensure the availability of play grounds in school located in
backward taluks

Department

of

Education,

of

Department

Rural

Development and Panchayati
Raj,

PWD,

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan

Objective: Achieve universal retention

Strategy

Responsible department

Minimize expenses on education for the parents by providing

CPI, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

free notebooks and uniforms
Provide reimbursements of non-govt. and examination fees to

Department

girl students and SC/ST students

Welfare,

of

Social

Sarva

Siksha

of

Rural

Abhiyan
Ensure availability of basic facilities such as water and

Department

sanitation in schools

Development and Panchayati

Raj, Water and Sanitation

agency,

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan. PWD
Social

Provide financial assistance to talented students and students

Department

who come from low income families and perform well

Welfare, Department of Rural

academically

Development and Panchayati

of

Raj, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan
Generate awareness about the necessity for completing school
education by highlighting benefits such as better opportunities
for earning one’s livelihood

Department

of

Rural

Development and Panchayati
Raj Sarva Siksha Abhiyan,

Department of Social Welfare
Provide creche facilities for working mothers in BPL families
to facilitate older siblings to stay in school for a longer
duration to complete their schooling

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Life skills
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The 2003-10 SPAC covered life skills under two sections; these were. Adolescent Health and
Education and Skill Development of Adolescents. Under Adolescent Health, the focus was on
developing concrete programmes that would improve life skills, health awareness and vocational
skills of adolescents and ensuring that these programmes reached 100% of the adolescent

population by 2010. The focus under Education and Skill Development of Adolescents was on
achieving a literacy rate of more than 85% by 2010. It also aimed to create opportunities for

adolescents to participate in educational/vocational training.

Even though programmes meant to impart awareness about sexual health, nutrition etc have been
put in place, it is difficult to evaluate the achievements under the last plan as data on the number

of adolescents covered under these programmes is not available. Also, recent data on literacy
rates is not yet available.

Way forward: Strategics
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards life skills and the strategies to
achieve the same.

Objective: Ensure all children have access to spaces where they can engage and learn about life
skills.

Strategy

Responsible department

Create Life Skills units in schools which can serve as a nodal

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

point for imparting life skills to children and young adults

Use sports and creative arts as forms of imparting life skills to

Department of Youth and

children and young adults

Sports, Department of Art
and Culture, Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan, Department of
Education

Provide the required infrastructure in schools to support the

Department of Education,

teaching life skills.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Objective: Ensure adolescents are given support to help them deal with pressures they are prone

to and prevent the occurrence of sexual or economic exploitation:

Strategy

Responsible department

Conduct programmes to generate awareness about challenges

SCERT,

Sarva

that are specific to adolescents- educational, nutritional,

Abhiyan,

Department

economic and sexual. Medical officers should be utilized to

Health and Family Welfare,

provide training on health related issues.

Department Of Education

Ensure that school authorities and law enforcement agencies

Police.

Sarva

Siksha

respond quickly and effectively to any complaints by students

Abhiyan,

Child

Protection

about harassment or exploitation of any kind

Committee

Conduct

awareness

programmes

about

sexual

and

Siksha

Of

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

reproductive health and sexual harassment

Sensitize teachers, school administrators, parents and health

SCERT,

Sarva

care providers to the needs of adolescents and challenges

Abhiyan,

Department

faced during adolescent years (for instance, being prone to

Health and Family Welfare

economic and sexual exploitation).

Siksha

Of

Budgeting for the Department Of Social Welfare

** All figures in lakhs.
Objective

Strategy

Ensure all
children
complete
minimum
of 8 years
of
elementary
education

Extend access to schemes
meant to reduce dropout
rate and improve
retention, such as mid day
meal schemes,
scholarship and
concessional fees for
students from
backgrounds and girl
students.

Ensure
that
schools
are
equipped
with basic
facilities

Provide hostels for girls

and students from
SC/ST/OBC

Scheme

Outlay
20092010

Outlay
20112013

Outlay Outlay
2014- 20172020
2016

A ssistance to
voluntary
organisations to
construct Hotel
buildings

100

364

484

904

Purchase of sites
for Hostels and
residential
Schools

75

273

363

678

Starting and
improvement of
New pre and
Post matric

50

182

242

452

communities

Hostels

Ensure
universal
access to
secondary
education

Achieve
universal
retention

Create Model Residential
schools to ensure
retention of children
belonging to SC, ST and
Minority families

4736

6304

11766

200

728

969

1808

Construction of
Residential
Schools

75

273

363

678

Construction of
Residential
School Complex
Building

1970

7172

9546

17816

Admission of SC 800
meritorious
students in
reputed
educational
institutions

2912

3876

7235

Construction of
hostel buildings

1301

Maintenance of
Morarj i Desai
Residential
Schools

9

Construction of
Morarj i Desai
Residential
Schools

Provide reimbursements
of non-govt. and
examination fees to girl
students and SC/ST
students
Provide financial
assistance to talented

students and students
who come from low
income families and
perform well

academically
Life skills

Create Life Skills units in
schools which can serve
as a nodal point for
imparting life skills to
children and young adults

Conduct programs to
create awareness in
teachers about problems
faced by children from
vulnerable sections
Impart training to
teachers to enhance their
capacity to deal with the
problems faced by such
children

District Level Schemes:

Objective

Strategy

Scheme

Outlay
20092010

Outlay
20112013

Outlay
20142016

Outlay
20172020

Ensure all
children
complete
minimum
of 8 years
of

Extend access to
schemes meant to
reduce dropout rate
and improve
retention, such as
mid day meal

Pre metric
scholarships to
SC students

730.99

2661

3542

6611

elementary schemes, scholarship
education and concessional fees
for students from
backgrounds and girl
students.
Ensure
that
schools
are
equipped
with basic
facilities

Ensure
universal
access to
secondary
education

Provide hostels for

girls and students

Construct and
repair Hotel
buildings

410

1492.81

1986.93

3708.038

Grant in aid to
Private Hostels

18.38

66.92

89.0

166.22

713.77
Starting and
improvement
of New pre and
Post matric
Hostels

2598

3549

6455

from SC/ST/OBC

communities

Create Model
Residential schools
to ensure retention of
children belonging to
SC, ST and Minority
families

Mai ntai nance
of hostel
buildings

540

1966

2616

4883

Construction
of Morarj i
Desai
Residential
Schools

1341

4882.58

6498.71

12127.99

Pre metric

2486

8985.988

11960.35 22320.58

hostels

Achieve
universal
retention

Extra boarding
and lodging
costs

887

3229.56

4298.55

8022.02

Maintenance
of Residential
Schools

63.63

231.67683 308.361

575.46

Construction
of Residential
Schools

2560

9320.96

12406.19 23152.62

Assistance to
SC meritorious
students.
Incentive
scholarships to
girls

1003

3651.92

4860.70

9071.12

34.95

46.52

86.82

Provide
reimbursements of
non-govt. and
examination fees to
girl students and
SC/ST students
Provide financial

assistance to talented
students and students

who come from low
income families and
perform well
academically

Upgradation of 9.60
merit SC
students
Life skills

Create Life Skills
units in schools
which can serve as a
nodal point for

imparting life skills
to children and
young adults
Conduct programs to
create awareness in
teachers about
problems faced by
children from
vulnerable sections
Impart training to
teachers to enhance
their capacity to deal
with the problems
faced by such
children

Non Plan Schemes:

Scheme

Objective

Strategy

Ensure all
children
complete
minimum
of 8 years
of
elementary

Nursery cum
Extend access to
women Welfare
schemes meant to
reduce dropout rate centres
and improve
retention, such as
mid day meal
schemes,

Outlay
20092010

Outlay
20112013

Outlay
20142016

Outlay
20172020

357.33

1301.03

1731.68

3231.69

education

Ensure
that
schools
are
equipped
with basic
facilities

Ensure
universal
access to
secondary
education

scholarship and
concessional fees
for students from
backgrounds and
girl students.

Provide hostels for

girls and students

Pre metric
scholarships to
the children of
those parents
engaged in an
unclean
occupation

32.48

118.25

157.403

293.74

Grant in aid to
Private Hostels state sector

20

72.82

96.923

180.87

Grant in aid to
private hostels District Sector

518.44

1887.64

2512.44

4688.76

GIA
hostelsf depressed
classes)

9170

33387.97 44439.38 82933.44

2891

10522.49

from SC/ST/OBC

communities

Residential
Create Model
Residential schools Schools
to ensure retention
of children
belonging to SC,
ST and Minority
families

14005.43 26137.14

Maintenance of
Residential
Schools
Achieve
universal
retention

1302.30 4741.67

6311.16

11777.99

Provide
Scholarships to
reimbursements of student
non-govt. and
examination fees to
girl students and
SC/ST students

458.64

1669.90

2222.64

4147.938

Provide financial

Scholarships to
SC meritorious
students.

5742

20906.62 27826.71 51930.62

Incentive to
meritorious SC
students (girls
only)

492.06

1791.59

assistance to
talented students

and students

who come from
low income
families and
perform well
academically

Life skills

Create Life Skills
units in schools
which can serve as
a nodal point for
imparting life skills
to children and
young adults

Conduct programs
to create awareness
in teachers about
problems faced by

2384.60

4450.18

children from
vulnerable sections
Impart training to
teachers to enhance
their capacity to
deal with the
problems faced by
such children

Inclusive Education
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

A major part of the sub-theme Children with e- Prevention, Protection, Mainstreaming and
Development in the previous SAP focused on education. Within education, the focus was on:



Providing access to educational institutions for children with disabilities, by making
institutions disabled friendly



Providing special education to children who have special needs



Providing access to vocational education



Decreasing discrimination in educational institutions and



Training educational personnel on inclusive education

Way forward: Strategies
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards differently-abled children and the
strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: To create infrastructure to support the inclusion of children with special needs in
mainstream schools.

Strategy

Responsible department

Set up infrastructure in schools to facilitate access and greater

Department of Education,

mobility for children with disabilities.

Department of Panchayati
Raj

and

Rural

Development,

Municipalities,
Siksha

Sarva

Abhiyan,

Department

of

Transportation
For smaller habitations where opening/upgrading of a school is

Department of Education,

not possible, adequate arrangements for free transportation shall

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan,

be made

Department

of

Transportation
Ensure all newly constructed school buildings are equipped with

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

infrastructure that make them accessible to children with
disabilities

Ensure provision in school buildings and other facilities open to

Department Of Disabled

differently abled children signs in in Braille and in easy to read

Welfare

and understand forms.
Provide forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including

Department Of Disabled

guides, readers and professional sign language interpreters, to

Welfare

facilitate accessibility.
Ensure that trained special personnel are available to cater to the

Department of Education,

educational needs of children with disabilities, especially in the

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

case of children with severe disabilities

Provision of training for teachers focused on teaching to children

Department Of Education

with disabilities.

Objective: To provide training to get professional and resource support

Resource teachers (IERT) shall be provided who have been
trained in Inclusive Education

Department of Education,
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

• 5 lERTs shall be provided per block with 1:50
schools.
• Capacity building to deal with disabilities.
Annual training camps for teachers focused specifically on

Department Of Education

teaching to children with disabilities.
To include Inclusive Education in the different modules of the

Department of Education,

programmes atleast for 5 days at D.Ed / B.Ed level; and at

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

training programmes
One year training program for

teachers in schools catreing

Department of Education

specifically to children with special needs.

Objective: To ensure enrolment of children with special needs in mainstream as well as special
schools

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure 0% rejection rate in schools for differently abled children

Department of Education,

under the Right To Education

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

For smaller habitations where opening/upgrading of a school is not

Department of Education,

possible, adequate arrangements for free transportation shall be

Sarva

made

Department

Siksha

Transportation

Abhiyan,
of

I

In respect of children with disabilities, which prevent them from

Department of Education,

accessing the neighbourhood school,

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

adequate and appropriate

arrangements for their education shall be made
Promotion of access for children with disabilities to new

Department Of Disabled

information and communications technologies and systems,

Welfare, Department Of

including the Internet;

Education

Maintain an effective teacher student ratio in the schools

Department Of Education

Arrange for home schooling and open schooling in cases of

Department of Education,

severe disability

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Dual

learning

options

should

be

provided

in

integrated

Department Of Education

classrooms, with extra tutorials, resource rooms for specialised

attention.

Distance learning should be provided through National Open

Department Of Education

University and through Websites and/or Television
_______________________________________

Objective: To impart quality education and increase retention ratio of children with disability.
Strategy

Responsible department

Siksha

Abhiyan,

High quality education shall be provided uniformly in all

Sarva

schools and to this end norms and standards shall be specified in

Department Of Education

respect of all activities involving quality
Siksha

Abhiyan,

The state shall define the learning outcomes of children at the

Sarva

end of each grade and for every subject and bring out textbooks,

Department Of Education

learning material and teacher training material based on these

outcomes.

Abhiyan,

Siksha

basic life-skills shall be imparted to children, through an age and

Sarva

disability appropriate syllabus, books and other learning

Department Of Education

materials
In order to ensure inclusive education in every school, the state
devise

a

continuous

system

of measurement of

I

shall

I

achievement for all classes, maintenance of portfolios for each

Sarva

Abhiyan,

Siksha

Department Of Education

child, devise remedial programmes and devise a system where

the school and teachers are made accountable for the low
performance of children

Objective: To ensure sensitisation of the community and government towards the needs of

differently abled children.

Strategy

Responsible department

Conduct Programmes to generate awareness in teachers and

Sarva

the community about issues concerning disability.

Department of Elementary

Siksha

Abhiyan,

,

Education
Conduct awareness campaigns to

sensitize government

officials so that they are aware of the needs and capabilities of

Department

Of

Disabled

Welfare

the children with disabilities and can be applied to asa

recourse in cases of discrimination
Introduction of Schemes that to promote recognition of the
skills and merits of children with disabilities, in the form of

scholarships and grants in aid

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Way forward: Timeline
2017-2020

2013-16

2011-2013

Overall goal

Development

Make

newly Ensure infrastructure in Ensure infrastructure in all

of

constructed

school all schools is disability schools

infrastructure

buildings and older friendly.

in

to

buildings barrier free facilities

support

of

through

inclusion

of

of

order

children with

special

needs

disability

is

Upgrade friendly.

Upgrade

reflect facilities

to

construction advances in technology

reflect

to

advances in technology

Provide

ramps.

specific

disability

assistance in forms of Annual training camps in

in mainstream

live

classrooms

other

assistance

and

for teachers to upgrade Annual training camps in

methods. their skills.

for teachers to upgrade

Provide the required

their skills.

appliances, and viable Ensure trained resource

provided

means of transport to personnel

at Ensure trained resource

children with special each school, for children personnel provided at each
with severe disabilities

needs.

training

Provide

school, for children with

to

severe disabilities

teachers to allow them

to be able to provide
specialised education

Ensure
Enrolment

• Ensure

zero

rejection

percent • Sustain

rate

of

children Under RTE

zero

rejection

percent • Sustain zero

rate

of

rejection

percent

rate

of

children

children.

• Adequate arrangements • Adequate arrangements • Adequate arrangements
for

open

home

schooling,

for

and

distance

open

home

schooling,

for

and

distance

open

home

schooling,

and

distance

I
shall

schooling

be

schooling

shall

evaluation

schools • Continuous evaluation • Continuous

• Specialised

be

provided

provided

provided

shall

schooling

be

of the

and updating of the

and

with severe disabilities

special

special facilities and the

shall be set at a district

the

level.

personnel

catering

children

to

facilities and
of

the

that

all

skills

updating

skills of the personnel

• Resource centres shall
be set up at a district
level to form a one stop
information portal for

schools on the subject

disability

of
management.

Improve
Quality


and

ensure

standards to

increase
retention

Develop norms and

quality of education



curricula

Develop

Ensure

that

Ensure

institutions keep to

institutions

these standards

these standards

Continuous



all

keep

to

Continuous monitoring

ensure

the

that

which caters to the

monitoring to ensure

to

needs

of

that the teachers and

teachers and school are

children

with

are

held

held accountable for

options,

accountable

for

performance

resource rooms and

performance

of

students

extra tutorials

students

learning

special

dual

school



Provision

of •

Constant monitoring

reimbursements

of

to

non-govt.

and

ensure

available

benefits
under

Constant monitoring to

ensure

benefits

available

under

incentive schemes are

examination fees, as

incentive schemes are

made

well as merit based

made

children.

scholarships

children.

to

available

to

of

available

to

children with special
needs

Capacity building of teachers

Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
The previous SAP did not have specific plans for capacity building among teachers. It did
recognize the need to train teachers and ensure that they have satisfactory work conditions (good
salaries for instance) in order to maintain quality in education. It recognized the importance of

teachers as a resource for imparting knowledge on and the realization of Child Rights. Keeping

this in mind, it was decided to integrate Child Rights within the curriculum of teacher training

(B.Ed and M.Ed courses). Further, it recognized the importance of equipping teachers for
inclusive education.

Way forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards teachers capacity building and the
strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: To ensure that the quality of education imparted to students is of a good standard

Strategy

Responsible department

Regularly monitor the quality of teaching in schools

SCERT,

Sarva

Siksha

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan

Conduct training programmes to familiarize teachers about

SCERT,

interesting pedagogic methods, such as activity based learning

Abhiyan

Reduce the non-teaching work load on teachers to enable them to

Department of Education,

invest time and effort on teaching

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Department of Education

Ensure that schools are supportive towards teachers and facilitate

the resolution of any problems/challenges they face

Objective: Ensure that teachers are capable of catering to children who might have special needs
or are unable to keep up with the regular pace in the classroom
Strategy

Responsible department

Conduct programmes to create awareness in teachers about

Department

problems faced by children from vulnerable sections- girl

Welfare,

children, children from SC/ST/OBC communities, children

Abhiyan, SCERT

of

social

Sarva

Siksha

with disabilities etc
Impart training to teachers to enhance their capacity to deal

Department

with problems faced by such children

Welfare,

of

social

Sarva

Siksha

Abhiyan, SCERT
Integrate a component on Inclusive Education in B.Ed and

Department

M.Ed courses

education

higher

of

and

technical

training
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Make provisions for remedial teaching in schools

Way forward: Timeline

Overall goal

2017-2020

2013-16

2011-2013

• Ensure continued access

• Universalise access to
high school education • Ensure

by bridging all gender

and

social

category

gaps.

access to high school
education

for

children.

• Universalise retention.
• Improve

continued

quality

to high school education

for all children.

all • Ensure all children are
retained in school.

• Ensure all children are • Constantly endeavour to
of

retained in school.

improve

quality

of

higher education
• Provide

life

education.
skills • Constantly

endeavour • Provide life skills related

related education to all

to improve quality of

children.

education.

life

• Provide

education to all children.

skills

related education to all
children.

Easy access to Upgrade primary schools Ensure

schools

upgraded Monitor the availability of

the

to high schools. In case schools are functioning schooling facilities in all

students have to travel effectively, and delivery districts, and continue to
long distances, provide of

services

such

schooling

as ensure

is

means of transport such provision of bicycles is physically accessible for

all children.

effective.

as bicycles.

clean

drinking

Ensure

clean

drinking Ensure

clean

drinking

Strengthen

Ensure

infrastructure

water, toilets and barrier water, toilets and barrier water, toilets and barrier
free environments in all free environments in all

free environments in all

schools. Provide hostels schools. Ensure proper schools.

Ensure

proper

maintenance of hostels maintenance of hostels for

to girl students.

for girl students.

girl students.

monitoring

to

Incentive

Minimize expenditure on Constant monitoring to Constant

schemes

education by providing ensure benefits available ensure benefits available

free

uniforms

and under incentive schemes under incentive schemes

notebooks, and providing are made available to are

reimbursements of non­ children.

govt.

and

examination

fees to girl students and

SC/ST students.

made

children.

available

to

financial Monitor effectively

Financial

Provide

assistance

assistance in the form of ensure

children

to

Monitor

come

from

income

families.

children

who

to

are ensure children are aware

scholarships to children aware of, and avail the of,

who

effectively

avail

and

the

low scholarships available to scholarships available to
and them.

them.

perform

well academically

Quality

Strengthen

improvement

training

teacher Ensure all teachers meet Ensure all teachers meet
programs

to

the required standards of the required standards of

introduce teachers to new quality. Continue with quality. Continue with the

methods the training sessions, to training sessions, to ensure

pedagogical

constant constant improvement.

such as activity based ensure
Increase mid­ improvement.

learning.

level training programs.
teachers

Ensure

are

supportive

provided

environments in schools.
teachers

are Ensure

the

that

Ensure that the sensitivity

Sensitized

Ensure

environment

sensitized to special needs sensitivity of teachers is of teachers is maintained,

from maintained.

children

of

vulnerable

backgrounds. schools.

through provided

children

awareness

Also

all

in all schools. Also ensure

ensure vulnerable

abled vulnerable children are provided

differently

and

in

programs.

Make

provisions

for

remedial

teaching

for

a

children
a

are

sensitized

sensitized environment in schools.

environment in schools.

these children.
Life skills

o

Create and maintain life skill units in schools to provide training to

adolescents in life skills.
o

Conduct awareness programs on challenges specific to adolescentseducational, nutritional, economic and sexual.

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Strategy and Timelines
Child Protection

I

I

Child Protection
Child trafficking
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The 2003-10 SPAC highlighted the lack of data on the number of children in trafficking
incidents and in difficult circumstances and the non-availability of replicable models of

protection and rehabilitation as major problems besetting efforts to control child trafficking. The

plan focussed on developing effective legislations and programmes that would protect children
subjected to trafficking and ensure that they are taken care of properly and are given enough

opportunity for development and overall growth. It also aimed at implementing a comprehensive

strategy for the prevention, rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of children who have been
trafficked or have undergone any kind of exploitation. By 2007, the plan aimed at ensuring that
all children in difficult circumstances were protected by comprehensive policies and

programmes.

CWC’s that handle a range of cases including trafficking have been put into place in all 27
districts of Karnataka. JJ Boards, which have been constituted with the intention of reaching out
to children in conflict with the law have been set up. 8 JJ boards ere in existence as of 2006 and

the state intends to set up 21 new J J boards to cover 100% of the districts.

The state also intends to set up 7 new Observational Homes.

Going forward: Strategies
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards the issue of child-trafficking and

the strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Prevent the occurrence of trafficking

Strategy

Responsible department

Activate anti-trafficking committees constituted at district, taluk

DWCD,

Police,

RDPR,

and gram panchayat level to monitor the implementation of the

ULB

Action Plan on trafficking

Map vulnerable communities and source and destination areas in

DWCD. Police

the state, in coordination with NGO's

Work along with local community bodies such as youth and
women’s

groups,

corporations,

educational

institutions,

municipalities, panchayat leaders etc to generate awareness about

DWCD,
Rural

Department

of

Development and

Panchayati Raj

child trafficking

Strictly enforce the compulsory registration of marriages as per

DWCD.

the provisions of the Karnataka Marriage Act, 1976

Revenue,

Department

Municipalities,

of

Police,
Inspector

General of Stamps and

Revenue
Sensitize specific groups of people who deal with or come in

SCERT, NIPCED, Police

contact with children to be sensitive and alert to problems/needs

Training academy, ATI,

of children, like police personnel, teachers, anganwadi workers,

Mysore, DWCD

railway and road transportation authorities and staff of all
children’s care institutions.

Set up norms and minimum standards in hostels and all child care

DWCD

institutions. These norms are also to be applicable to child care

institutions falling under the purvey of the Social Welfare Dept,
Minorities Commission and any other Departments.
Set up norms and child protection standards in the hospitality and

DWCD

tourism industry to ensure tourism does not promote child
exploitation
* These norms will be implemented by the tourism department and Police

Prioritize vulnerable communities for development programs

DWCD, RDPR

Objective: Ensure fast and effective rescue of children who have been trafficked

Strategy

Responsible department

Establish and functionalize the anti-trafficking cell at CID

Police

Develop standardized protocols for raid and rescue operations in

DWCD

consultation with Police and NGO's

Make it mandatory to register complaints and create a central data

Police

base on missing children
* SHG's and Youth groups can be asked to volunteer information

Network with key departments in raid and rescue operations

Police

Promote inter-district and inter-state cooperation in rescue and

Police

rehabilitation
Organize community outreach programmes as per SO920 on the

DWCD.

issue relating to trafficking emphasizing area specific issues

Department

Police,

of

Rural
and

Development

Panchayati raj, Railways,

KSRTC, Municipalities

Undertake joint review and monitoring of cases at unit level

SCP.s and DCP's

Focus on capacity building of active players in rescue and

DWCD,

rehabilitation- law enforcement personnel, police, members of

Police Training Academy,

Child

Welfare committees and JJ

boards, customs and

immigration officials, public prosecutors and judges and other

Police,

ATI,

NIPCED, Karnataka
Judicial Academy, SJPU

officials and NGO's on the issue

Objective: Ensure legal action is taken against offenders
Strategy

Responsible department

Train police personnel especially those at the CCB and DCIB on

Police

the issue of trafficking and related laws with special focus on the

department

Training

Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act

Generate awareness on process and procedures to be followed

Police, DWCD , NIPCED

when handling cases of children who have been trafficked
Direct local officers nominated to the anti trafficking vigilance

District

committees to participate actively

CEO, of ZPs office

Make provisions for video or in-camera recording of child

Police, Judiciary

Collectors

and

survivor’s statement to support prosecution and minimize victim
trauma

* NGO's can be requested to provide counsellors

Provide a witness protection system that will operate during

Police, SJPU

preliminary investigation, trial and post trial periods to protect
witnesses from inducements and threats

Child pornography
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The earlier SAP did not have a separate section on Child Pornography and instead tackled
this issue under the sub-theme Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. Within this sub-theme,

child pornography featured as one of the manifestations of the sexual abuse and
exploitation of children. The only specific strategy outlined to tackle child pornography
(and related concerns such as trafficking of children on the internet) was taking necessary

measures to combat the criminal use of information technology.
Going forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards the issue of child-trafficking and
the strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Create legal and technical safeguards against child pornography

Strategy

Responsible department

Generate awareness amongst parents and caretakers, in schools

Department of Education,

and cybercafes about laws which deal with child pornography,

SCERT, Police

such as the Information Technology Bill

Create a coalition between internet service providers (ISPs) and

Police

Cyber Crime Cells to monitor occurrences of production or
consumption of child pornography and ensure that effective

action is taken against the perpetrators

Team up with ISPs, NGOs working with technology and the

Police

private sector to conduct workshops for educators and parents

about creating a safe online environment for children

Objective: Ensure legal action is taken against perpetrators of child pornography

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure that Cyber Crime Cells pay special attention to child

Police

pornography

Train police personnel to respond effectively to complaints about

Police

child pornography by ensuring proper legal procedures are
followed while dealing with such complaints

Ensure online and offline tracking of perpetrators

Police

Objective: Ensure children who have been affected by child pornography are given care and

support

Strategy

Responsible department

Sensitize legal institutions about dealing with children who have

Police

been victims of child pornography
Ensure a child friendly atmosphere in police stations and courts

Police, Department of Law

Affairs
Provide access to psychologists and counsellors either at school

Police,

or through police stations for children

Education (CPI)

Set up systems, especially in schools, for providing long term

CPI

Department

of

support for children to deal with the trauma

Child Marriage
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The earlier SAP considered the problem of child marriages under two sub-themes: Sexual
Abuse and Exploitation and Girl Child (cross-cutting theme). In both these sections, the
plan recognized the problems caused by the prevalence of child marriages. These range
from adverse effects on the children to exploitation of children as child marriage serves
as a pretext for free sexual and domestic labour. There measures prescribed to tackle the

problem were ensuring all marriages are registered and taking preventive and punitive

action to ensure that girls marry either when they are 18 years or older.
Going forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards the issue of child-marriage and the

strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Generate awareness about the consequences of child marriage and processes and

procedures to be followed when handling cases of child marriage

Strategy

Responsible department

Use folk media and electronic and print media to generate

DWCD,

awareness about the adverse effects of child marriage on the

Rural

Department

of

Development and

children’s health and normal development

Raj,

Panchayati
Municipalities

in

coordination with NGO's

and the Department Of
Health.

Ensure that communities are made aware of the law against child

DWCD,

marriages

Samakhya, District Legal

Mahila

Services and Authorities

Work with communities where there is a high prevalence of child

DWCD,

marriages to change societal attitudes about girl children

Samakhya,

Mahila
Self

Help

Groups, and Department
Of Education

Train police officers and officials of Registrar of Marriages to

Police, DWCD. Revenue

effectively and quickly respond to cases of child marriage

Department

Conduct awareness programs to educate the Police in dealing

Police

with the victims of child marriage in ways that restricts the
trauma to a minimum

Ensure that communities, educators, anganwadi workers etc are

SCERT, NIPCED, DWCD

aware of the procedures to be followed when they come across

through Anganwadi

instances of child marriage (how to report, whom to report to,

Training Centers

NGOs or people within the community and in the police they can
seek help from etc)

Objective: Take cognizance of an occurrence of child marriage- either as an individual case or
as part of mass marriage

Strategy

Responsible department

Direct Child Welfare Officers at the police stations to coordinate

DWCD, Police, CMPO

with ‘Child Marriage Prohibition Officers’ as per the Prohibition
of Child Marriage Act 2006. to take steps to prevent child

marriage

Direct Station House Officers to take suo moto action in instances

Police

of child marriages during mass marriages or individual marriage

and lodge FIRs against the contracting parties/person or persons
involved

Scrutinize

documents

and

registers

maintained

by

Revenue

Department,

institutions/individuals organising mass marriages to prevent

DWCD, CDP. Department

cases of child marriages

Of Health

Get DWCD and local NGOs to prevent incidents of child

DWCD. NGO's

marriage and propose legal action where necessary

Ensure adequate follow up of a case by the Child Welfare

DWCD, CWC or CWO,

Officers until those convicted of conducting and agreeing to child

CMPO, DWCD, RDPR

marriages are punished according to law

Child Labour
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
The previous SAP focused on eliminating all forms of child labour and ensuring all
children rescued from child labour had access to proper education and rehabilitation
facilities. The Plan also decided to withdraw the distinction between hazardous and non-

hazardous labour by deeming all labour which interferes with the education and physical
and psychological development of a child as child labour.
Going forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards the issue of child labour and the
strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Prevent the incidence of child labour by focusing on the family with intensive

awareness and capacity building measures

Strategy

Responsible department

Generate awareness about the adverse effects of child labour on

Department of Labour

the development of the child and highlight the importance of

education for a child’s growth and career prospects in the future
Ensure skill development, income generation and livelihood

Department of Labour and

opportunities for the child labour affected families (with a thrust

Employment,

to female-headed households) for facilitating augmentation of

Department

family income especially for mothers, elder siblings and released

Welfare, Department for

child labourers in adolescent age group (15 to 18 years).

Rural

DWCD,

of

Social

Development and

Pane hay ati Ra j

Develop adequate creche facilities for working mothers belonging

DWCD,

to BPL families to ensure older siblings are not made to stay back

Labour

Department

of

department

of

from school to look after younger siblings

Ensure benefits of government programmes for BPL families,

DWCD,

SC/ST families etc reach families affected by child labour on a

Social Welfare

priority basis

Objective: To ensure that every child, in the age group 6-14 years, already in child labour is

released and provided a viable and sustainable alternative.

Strategy

Responsible department

Maintain a database of complaints about child labour and ensure

Department of Labour

every case is recorded in the database. Map the extent of the
problem including number of children employed, kinds of
occupations they are employed in, any specific regions where the
problem is widely prevalent etc

Ensure an effective tracking and monitoring mechanism that

Department of Labour

monitors children who have been rescued from child labour
Ensure effective legal action is taken against employers who

Department of Labour

violate laws against child labour

Focus on providing educational opportunities and pre-vocational

NCLP,

education training to children who have been rescued from child

Commissionarate

labour

Employment and Training

Provide vocational training to older siblings and ensure parents in

Commissionarate

BPL families have access to employment opportunities

Employment and Training

Ensure children who have been released from employment and do

DWCD

CPI,
of

of

not have caretakers are sent to child care homes which are

equipped to provide for the development and successful
rehabilitation of these children

Conduct regular checks of establishments which have a history of

Department of Labour

employing children, especially in fields where child labour is

rampant; Ensure that legal action is taken against establishments

found flouting the law banning child labour

Objective: To provide an opportunity to every child, in the age group 6-14 years to access free,

compulsory, equitable and quality education.
Strategy

Responsible department

Run bridge schools for children who had dropped out of

CPI, NCLP. SCLP

mainstream education to become child labourers
Ensure children in government and aided schools get benefits

CPI, SSA

such as mid-day meals, free books and uniforms for girl children
and children from BPL families, SC/ST communities

Impart vocational training to older children who have been out of

Commissionarate

of

school

Employment and Training

Ensure children of migrant labourers and children whose parents

CPI. SSA

work in occupations such as tanning, scavenging etc are given
priority access to education
Provide incentives for school children based on their attendance,

CPI. SSA

such as fee concessions for children with over 90% attendance
Ensure School Development Monitoring Committees monitor the

Department

attendance of students and take the initiative to talk to the parents

Development

and the community if a child is found to be repeatedly absent

Panchayati Raj, SSA

Rural

of

and

from school

Ensure children of migrant workers have access to education,

Department

either by enrolling them in the nearest school or through tent and

Development

mobile schools

Panchayati

Rural

of

and
SSA,

Raj,

Municipalities

Objective:

Create community awareness and movement so as to ensure that no child is

employed.

Strategy

Responsible department

Sensitize the community as a whole to the adverse effects of child

Department of Labour

labour
Ensure problems within the community, such as lack of access to

Department

of

Labour,

employment opportunities for parents, financial insecurities

Department

of

Rural

caused by poverty etc are addressed adequately

development

and

Panchayati Raj, ULB

Make the community central to planning programmes at the local

Department

of

Labour,

level to prevent child labour and in rehabilitation programmes for

Department

of

Rural

rescued child labourers

development

and

Panchayati Raj, ULB

Child Abuse
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC

The previous SAP in its section on Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of children recognized
the various forms of abuse that children face. These include being forced into prostitution
because of the Devdasi system and because of child trafficking, facing sexual abuse from
parents, relatives, neighbours, caregivers and others, being exploited through child
pornography, child sexual tourism etc. The Plan aimed at protecting all children from all
such forms of sexual exploitation by developing inter-district and inter-state networks

and involving local self-governments and community groups.
Going forward: Strategies

Following are the state government’s key objectives towards the issue of child abuse and the
strategies to achieve the same.
Objective: To prevent the occurrence of child abuse and exploitation

Strategy

Responsible department

Undertake a state wide information gathering to map the

DWCD, Child Helpline,

occurrence of child abuse and exploitation and analyse manner of

CWC, NGO's

occurrence of child abuse, vulnerable groups of children and any
indicators about the causes of such abuse

Ensure that these results feed into a comprehensive programme

DWCD

that works with children in their specific socio-economic and
geographic settings to prevent the occurrence of child abuse

Sensitize caregivers, student and youth groups to child abuse and
familiarize them with legal mechanisms available for redressing

DWCD

of any instances of abuse
Constitute committees within schools which children can

DWCD, Department Of

approach with any complaints of abuse and ensure that the

Education

purpose of these committees is known to children and caretakers
Ensure all police stations have child protection units

Police

Create awareness on the issue of child abuse at district, taluk and

RDPR, DWCD

gram panchayat level

Objective: Ensure effective mechanisms are available to redress child abuse

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure that CWO's are trained to adopt a child sensitive approach

Police, SJPU

while dealing with cases of child abuse

Work with legal organizations and NGOs to ensure caregivers

DWCD,

and children are aware of what constitutes child abuse and where

Services Authorities

District

Legal

redressal for the same can be sought

Involve various departments such as Department of Women and

DWCD

Child, Health Department, Education Department, Police etc in

developing a comprehensive system of rescuing and rehabilitation
of children who face abuse and exploitation

Take strict legal action against perpetrators of child abuse

Police, Judiciary

Establish adequate number of half-way homes with counselling

DWCD, NGO's

and rehabilitation facilities to the victims of child sexual abuse
and child prostitution
Creation of awareness among children so that they are able to Childline, CWC, CRC and

communicate to the proper authorities about the abuse they may

face, whether on the domestic front, or in their educational
institutions

through

School

Development

monitoring

PCR, Bal Vikas Academy

Committees, Child Rights Clubs etc

Rehabilitation and Care
Recap of the 2003-10 SPAC
In the earlier SAP, rehabilitation and care formed an integral part of the theme; Protecting

(Children) against Neglect, Abuse, Exploitation and Violence. Though there was recognition
of the importance of providing proper rehabilitation facilities for children who needed them

(such as children rescued from trafficking or from child labour), there were no specific goals
that related to rehabilitation and care. However currently, specialized adoption agencies are

functioning in 24 Districts (3 Government and 27 NGOs), NGO run Shelter Homes are
functioning in 6 Districts , In addition, 56 Children Homes have been set up by the Govt for

Care and Protection of Children, 16 Observation Homes have been set up by the Govt for
Children in conflict with law. Out of sixteen, 4 Observation Homes are also recognized as

Special Homes for rehabilitation of children in conflict with Law.

Going forward: Strategies
Following are the state government’s key objectives towards rehabilitation and care and the

strategies to achieve the same.

Objective: Ensure that JJ homes and child care homes work towards the holistic development of
children in their care

Strategy

Responsible department

Assign clear timelines on how long the child should be at these

DWCD

homes and record experiences to ensure that there are no cases

where the child is a part of the home and has been forgotten
Ensure that all homes have in house counsellors who work

DWCD

towards the psychological well being of the child

Provide access to education for all the children in these homes,

CPI.

till the age of 18

Commissionarate

SSA,
of

Employment and Training
Ensure the child has access to further educational opportunities or

DWCD,

CPI,

SSA,

to vocational training after completing school education

Commissionarate

of

Employment and Training
Ensure that all children undergo a thorough health check up when

DWCD

they are first brought to these homes and provide access to health
care services as required

Conduct periodic medical checkups and maintain a medical

Department

record for all children

DWCD

Provide access to Life Skills education and extracurricular

DWCD. NIPCED

of

health.

activities to ensure that these children do not become repeat
offenders and are not permanently scarred due to their personal

experiences
Ensure that the personnel in these homes are adequately trained

DWCD

and have the necessary language and cultural skills to deal with
children who come from other states and other countries

Sensitize the personnel to the challenges faced by children who

DWCD

have undergo traumatic experiences (psychological, inter­
personal skills, educational etc) and ensure the personnel are
capable of addressing these challenges

Objective: Streamline the functioning of the care homes

Strategy

Responsible department

Ensure that guidelines about the kind of care to be provided to

DWCD

children who come to the homes for varying periods of time

(temporary stay, stay for 5-6 months, or staying for an indefinite
period of time) are properly followed
Ensure that an external agency regularly monitors the functioning

DWCD

of these homes to inspect the quality of care
Ensure that children in these homes have direct access to the

DWCD

external monitoring agency, so that any complaints of neglect or

abuse within the homes are brought to notice and dealt with
adequately

Undertake regular checks of privately run homes to ensure they

DWCD

follow basic guidelines on providing rehabilitation and care to
children

Ensure the government has records of all the children in privately

DWCD

run homes so that necessary benefits can be provided to the

children and their development can be monitored
Ensure the personnel in these homes involve the local

DWCD

community, so that the child transitions into the society
seamlessly and to ensure that they have the required local context

to understand the situation of the child

Going forward: Timeline

2011-2013

2013-16

2017-2020

Overall goal

• Put an end to child • Ensure

trafficking

trafficking
• Ensure

effective

that

occur.

rescue

of

sustained effort.

technical

not

does

trafficking

occur, through sustained

children

in

are

children

• Ensure

in

are

rehabilitation

provided adequate care

provided adequate care

and support.

and support.

child • Implement

the • Implement

and

safeguards

against

child

that

effort.

rehabilitation

legal

not

through

and

children who have been • Ensure

• Create

does

fast

trafficked.

child • Ensure

safeguards

pornography.

• Ensure child labour is

created

against

child

the

created

safeguards

against

child

stopped completely, and

pornography, to ensure

pornography, to ensure

former child labourers

cases do not occur.

cases do not occur.

are enrolled in schools.

• Monitor effectively to • Monitor effectively to

• Completely stop child
marriages in the state,

targeted

through

ensure the practice of

ensure the practice of

not

child labour is not found

labour

child

is

found in the state.

in the state.

interventions in areas of • Monitor effectively to • Monitor effectively to
high prevalence.

Stop

ensure no stray cases of

ensure no stray cases of

child marriage occur.

child marriage occur.

child Release every child in the Ensure all children in the Monitor

labour

the

situation

age group of 6-14 who is age group of 6- 14 are in effectively to ensure no

presently a labourer, and school, and stop child child
provide

viable labour

alternatives to the family.

completely

is

denied

an

effectively

to

by education.

adopting a family based

approach.

Prevention

Prevent

and

children through effective ensure no stray cases of ensure no stray cases of

rehabilitation

enforcement

trafficking

of

of Monitor effectively to

legal trafficking are registered

Monitor

trafficking are registered

of victims of provisions.
trafficking

offenders

Ensure Continue

are

punished rescued

track Continue to track rescued

to

children.

to children, to ensure they

adequate ensure they are provided are provided adequate care

Provide

rehabilitation and support adequate

care

and and protection. .

to children rescued from protection. .

trafficking.

awareness Monitor

Prevent child Conduct
marriages

closely

programs in areas where continue

and Monitor

awareness continue

closely

and

awareness

high incidence of child programs, particularly in programs, particularly in

marriage

prevails,

to high prevalence areas, to high prevalence areas, to

improve attitudes towards ensure stray

cases of ensure stray cases of child

the girl child. Implement child marriage do not marriage do not occur.
legal stipulations about occur.

child marriage strictly, to

stop

child

completely.

marriage

Karnataka State Action Plan for children 2011-20

r

Annexure

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Annexure

Annexure

1:

List of documents consulted for developing the SPAC 2011-20

1. Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour in Karnataka: 2010-2017
2. Action Plan to Combat Trafficking of Women and Children in Karnataka, 2007

Annual Report, Department of Births and Deaths Registration, 2006-2007
4. Annual Report, Department of Women and Child Development, 2009-2010
5. Annual Report, Sarva Shiksha Abhyan, 2008-2009
6. Annual Report, Welfare Department, 2009-2010

7. Ensuring Child Well-being- Andhra Pradesh State Plan of Action for Children, 2007-

2010
8. Karnataka State Plan of Action for Children: 2003-2010
9. Karnataka State Strategic Statistical Plan (KSSSP), Directorate of Economics and

Statistics, 2009

10. Performance Budget, Education Department 2009-2010
11. Revised Scheme for Street Children: An Integrated Programme for Street Children,
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (year)

12. Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2004-06, Sample Registration System,
Office of Registrar General, India, 2009

13. State Level Workshop on Universalization of ICDS with Quality: Report, 2009
14. Ujjawala: A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of Trafficking and Rescue,

Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking for Commercial Sexual
Exploitation, Ministry of Women and Child Development, GOI, 2007

Annexure

2

List of persons and departments consulted for developing the

SPAC: 2011-2010

Bangalore District Administration (Assistant Collector, Bangalore South and Anekal)
Chief Health Officer, Bruhut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)
Welfare Commissioner, Bruhut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)

Additional Commissioner, Bruhut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)
District Education Officer, Bangalore District

Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore District

Department of Births and Deaths Registration
State Health Resource Centre

Department of Health

Department of Labour- Karnataka State Resource Centre on Child Labour

Training Cell, Department of Police
Commissionarate of Public Instruction
o Sarva Shiksha Abhyan (SSA)

Department of Social Welfare

Department of Women and Child Development

Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj

Annexure

List of NGOs consulted for developing First Draft of SPAC
Akshara Foundation

Akshaya Patra

Ananya
Concerned for Working Children (CWC)
Dream A Dream

Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS)
Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT)

Kilikili
Makkala Jagriti

Unnati

3:

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