the goan I network
PANAJI
A Rs 30 crore integrated women and children’s home has been tendered, Minister for Women and Child Development Vishwajit Rane announced on Thursday. The centre, to be set up in Merces, is set to have all departments under one roof.
In a first project of its kind in the country, departments like a children’s court, Juvenile Justice Board for North and South Goa, child welfare committees (CWC), Goa State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR), Goa State Commission for Women, Apna Ghar administrative block, extension of residential facility for children in existing the Apna Ghar building, a playground and recreational facilities for juveniles, a protection home, an aftercare home, a vocational training facility for children, and a general administrative building will all be housed together.
The complex design structure has green passages in the spaces between buildings. In his announcement, Rane said, “We have planned to avoid touching or destroying nature. It is designed to have a positive impact on the environment.”
The integrated children’s home will do away with several smaller child care institutions (CCIs) which house sometimes even as few as five children. As reported in ‘The Goan’ earlier, the idea for an integrated home has been welcomed by most stakeholders as currently, Apna Ghar does not have a schooling facility linked to it.
Though the number of children in CCIs in Goa is above 2000, this is not an accurate figure as many children in CCIs are not children in need of care and protection, but children who have been sent there by parents, who are still their guardians, various people working in the children’s sector in Goa have maintained. Stakeholders also feel that once an integrated home is built, it will be easier to manage children in need of care and protection.
