Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Nov 29: To address issues such as child marriage, child labour, school dropouts, and atrocities against women, vigilance committees—also known as awareness committees for the protection of women and children—will soon be established in urban areas.

These vigilance committees have already been formed at the gram panchayat level. There has been growing demand to establish similar committees in all urban local bodies, comprising representatives from local institutions, NGOs, and civil society. Considering this demand, the state government issued a circular on November 26 directing all urban local bodies to form vigilance committees to prevent trafficking of women and children, child marriage, and to ensure the protection of child rights.

The head or president of the urban local body will serve as the committee chairperson, while a woman member of the urban local body will be the vice-chairperson. The committee will also include two members of the local body, the block education officer (BEO), taluk health officer (THO), the sub-inspector of the concerned jurisdiction, two women members from an NGO, a high school girl student, labour officer, social welfare officer, and one officer each from the backward classes welfare and minority welfare departments, along with ward-level officers.

The vigilance committees must meet once every three months and have been instructed to gather and provide details of all children within the jurisdiction of the urban local body, said Usman A, deputy director of the department of women and child development. These committees are expected to organise awareness campaigns in coordination with schools, police stations, anganwadis, women’s self-help groups, and youth organisations.

The primary role of the committees is to detect cases of trafficking involving women and children, provide protection to victims, and extend economic, moral, social, medical, and educational support to the families concerned.