Hyderabad, April 13 : A new lease of life is in offing for over 5000 children living on the streets of Hyderabad city as they would soon have a legal identity.
On the occasion of ‘International Day for Street Children’ on Tuesday, Telangana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) Chairperson, J Srinivasa Rao virtually launched a collaborative project for the children living in street situations, ‘Making #TheInvisibles Visible through Legal Identity in Hyderabad City’ in the presence of Child Champion from Mumbai Latifa Shaikh, Verizon India Director (Strategy and Planning) Aswin Lakshmanan and leaders from Save the Children including Deputy Director (South Hub) Vikas Gora.
The Project supported by Verizon India, an Information Technology driven Global Capability Centre (GCC), Save the Children has joined hands with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to ensure a life of dignity and respect for the Children in Street Situations (CiSS) in Hyderabad City — by ensuring a legal identity, and thereby access to their entitlements as rights.
To begin with, the year-long project will ensure a legal identity document to over 5000 CiSS to enable them to be visible on the government records and avail schemes for which they are eligible for their overall well-being and future growth, Verizon India, which has a 6000-strong, diverse talent pool that operates out of Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, said in a release here.
The project brings in multiple stakeholders (State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, District Child Protection Unit, Department of Women and Child Welfare, Child Welfare Committees, State Juvenile Police Unit – Hyderabad Police and other civil society organisations) on a common platform to bring about a collective impact on these lives.
Speaking on the occasion, Srinivasa Rao appreciated Save the Children for taking up such initiative to work on the issues of children living in street situations. We need all the stakeholders to come together and address the issues holistically.
He said he called for a detailed discussion on chalking out a plan of working together to promote and protect the rights of children in street situations, he said giving an identity to the street children is an important beginning.
He also appreciated all the partners for coming together to make the launch a huge success. SCPCR will also be there to support not just 5000 children but every single child lives in street situations in Hyderabad, he added.
Highlighting the importance of this collaborative initiative, Aswin said, “We are happy to partner with Save the Children to provide a new lease of life to these homeless and underprivileged.
Children through a legal identity as citizens of our country, Aswin said with this initiative, we aim to provide a robust support system for the street children by ensuring access to basic facilities, empowering them with information and awareness on their rights and entitlements and helping them lead their life with dignity and respect.
Save the Children Senior Manager ( Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Ms Prasanthi Bathina, said “For too long, children in street situations have been deprived of their basic rights due to the lack of legal identity. We have successfully supported 2 lakh children in four states in the country with a legal identity and connected them with various social security schemes.
We could expand our areas of expertise to Hyderabad city and we thank our funding partner Verizon for their timely support for this urgent initiative given the increased challenges faced by these most vulnerable children and their families during the pandemic, she added.
Save the Children programme Management Head (Urban) Avinash Singh, Urban Programme and Policy Head Manish Thakre and Communication and Campaign Manager (South ) Ms Rupali Goswami were also present.(UNI)