Agatha denies any NPP move to nominate her to Rajya Sabha
Shillong, July 16: The Meghalaya State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) has asked the state government to create more green and recreational spaces for children and steps to ensure safety and well-being of children, who travel to other parts of the country.
MSCPCR chairperson Agatha K Sangma, during her meeting with chief minister Conrad K Sangma and social welfare minister Paul Lyngdoh, sought their intervention in this regard.
“I met the chief minister and social welfare minister for creation of more green spaces, more recreational spaces in our towns,” Sangma told reporters on Wednesday.
Emphasising a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for sending children of Meghalaya to other parts of the country, she said the SOP would require organisations and individuals to follow the guidelines while taking children outside the state.
The matter was raised in a meeting with various departments, including education, police, law, health, etc., recently, she said.
Underlining the need for SOP, she said, “Many a times children are taken (outside the state) and the government is not aware of it, and only when something terrible happens, we get to know about it.”
She was referring to the death of two young boys and nearly two dozen others, all from Meghalaya, taken ill after a food poisoning incident in a residential school in Karnataka.
“We need to prevent it by making sure where are the children, what conditions they are living in and what kind of institutes they were sent to?” she said.
She expressed the hope that government would take the SCPCR’s proposal for setting up more green spaces forward.
Meanwhile, the Commission has been conducting sensitisation programmes in schools to raise awareness about child rights, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence, she said.
She emphasised the importance of creating a conducive environment for people to be able to report incidents of violence and injustice.
“There was a recent case where a mother refused to file an FIR because the perpetrator is a relative of the family,” she said.
Underlining the need for all stakeholders, to intervene and enable the family to lodge complaint, she said, “Don’t attach a taboo to these kinds of incidents and don’t treat them as victims but as survivors.”
Expressing concern over the rising crimes against women and children, the chairperson has attributed it to a societal problem that requires a collective effort to address.
She emphasized the need for teachers, families, and society as a whole to play a role in preventing such crimes.
Meanwhile, the former Tura MP has denied rumours about her potential nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat.
There has been no such discussion within the National People’s Party (NPP) regarding her candidacy, she asserted.
However, she expressed her commitment to supporting the party’s decision, whatever that may be.
“All I can say is whoever my party decides, I fully support that candidate,” she said.
