Manipur Social Welfare Minister Nemcha Kipgen has urged the Central Government to extend necessary support for the children living with HIV/AIDS in the State considering the day-to-day grievances of the community.
Minister Nemcha said there are more than 2811 children living with HIV/AIDS and 1450 are on ART in the State. But most of them are from incapacitated families and are very much eligible for the sponsorship programme.
Nemcha Kipgen was delivering her speech at the National Conference of Ministers in Charge of Women and Child Development in New Delhi on Tuesday, official sources said.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) Maneka Gandhi, Minister of State for WCD Dr Virendra Kumar graced the conference as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively and ministers in charge of WCD from all the States and UTs were also part of the conference.
Women Safety, Child Safety, Welfare and Adoption and POSHAN Abiyaan, PMMVY, ICDS were the topics discussed during the conference.
Making it a point to highlights all these topics in Manipur’s context, Kipgen stated that Manipur has effectively started implementing the Women Helpline, with nearly 266 cases have received in the past few months where 95 pc of the cases have been solved since its launch a year back.
To ensure women safety, a specific scheme for imparting self defence classes to all female students and young women from class VI onwards should be incorporated. Peer group can also be formed to share experiences emotionally and financially for the marginalised women in the localities.
Drawing the attention of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Nemcha expressed that there is a rise in cases of violation of POCSO Act and child trafficking cases. Though the guidelines provide for village child protection committees, there is an urgent need to strengthen them, financially and empowering with authoritative powers.
It is also essential to have separate specialised institutions for temporary reception of these children and a long-term economic and educational facilities for these categories of children with the technical and financial support of state and central governments.
Manipur Minister Kipgen was accompanied by Secretary, Social Welfare, Jacintha Lazarus in the conference. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.