Author: Arpan Rai
Publication: Dailymail.co.uk
Date: November 18, 2017
URL:   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-5096185/amp/Orphans-trained-deployed-watch-India-borders.html

Orphaned and abandoned children across India's 9,000 child care institutions are to be trained to guard India's borders.

The initiative has come after talks between the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the Sashastra Seema Bal.

As a result, the defence forces will train the youngsters to protect the borders, in an effort to help those in child care institutions to have a career.

According to NCPCR officials, the border guard force will take on children from institutions within areas under its watch.

'When they came to know about the existing child care institutions in their jurisdiction, the officials have shown interest in adopting these kids,' said Rupa Kapoor, a member of the NCPCR, which comes under the ministry of women and child development.

Rupa added: 'The commission is heading in this direction so that when these children come out, they have a chance to lead a dignified life.

'This is the first time the armed forces have decided to come on board to help children without any guardian.'

NCPCR has been tasked with preparing a list of children falling in the age group of 15-18, who will be trained to develop specific skills.

The programme will include providing medical facilities and counselling to those teenagers wanting to join the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which has already decided to start the training in Assam. The process is likely to include children from West Bengal, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and other border states.

The commission is dividing children into different age groups and, depending on their developmental needs, they will be given bank loans through a central scheme to enable them to pursue their career.

SSB, the central armed police force operating at the Indo-Nepal and IndoBhutan borders, has also confirmed that children will be trained as a community-centric measure.

'We will train the deprived and often destitute orphans with the assistance of NCPCR to become a part of the armed forces,' a senior SSB official said.

'This is a community-centric move with long-term planning for the children by enhancing their basic skills.'

The military watches over the community in general by teaching essential abilities, but this is a step forward by bringing orphaned and abandoned children into the ambit, the official said.

Commission members maintain that this move comes in the wake of a lack of rehabilitation of those at child care institutions and it is expected to have a positive impact on the youngsters, stopping them, for example, from turning to criminal activities.

The NCPCR has proceeded with a list of children in Assam and the SSB is likely to initiate the training next month.

'Abandoned children usually end up with no career path. This move, for the first time in India, will witness physical training and grooming of a child to help him or her serve the country,' said an official from the ministry.

'There is immense pressure in the ministry to rank child care institutions on the basis of their functioning,' said Rakesh Srivastava, secretary of the women and child development ministry.

'We will soon prepare an index of these institutions based on the facilities made available to the orphan kids, tidiness in the vicinity and the treatment that is being meted out to them.'