The University of Madras along with the United Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF), will soon have new short-term programmes on Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology, Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and other related subjects.
"While the programme will be open to all stakeholders who deal with children, it will be designed to sensitise members of police, JJ boards and judiciary, particularly from POCSO courts," said Justice S Manikumar, a judge of Madras High Court and chairperson of JJ Commitee, while speaking at the 'State Level Sensitisation programme on JJ Act 2015 and POCSO Act 2012 on Saturday.
Three types of short-term programmes will be launched: a one-year diploma course, a 12-week certificate programme and an intense three-day programme. "We had discussions with eminent psychologists and stakeholders across the country including police, Juvenile Justice board, Child Welfare Committee and Social Welfare Board and decided to launch these programmes," he said.
Speaking to Express, M Srinivasan, Head of the Department of Criminology at University of Madras, said while the papers are yet to be finalised, experts have deliberated having six papers in the diploma course. The diploma will have two semesters and students will need 18 credits to complete the course.
"We've deliberated on having papers on child and adolescent development, JJ system, developmental psychology, dealing with children in need of care and protection, children in conflict with law," he said adding that a select three papers will be made available for the 12-week certificate course that will offer nine credits to students upon completion," he said adding that a select three papers will be made available for the 12-week certificate course that will offer nine credits to students upon completion.
The three-day intensive programme, will cover important topics of the diploma in an overview. This short programme will be launched by November while the diploma and certificate course will start from January 2018. The two programmes will mostly happen in the evenings and thrice a week."We are also tweaking the syllabus to fit it as an in-service programme for police and judiciary," said Srinivasan.
Dealing with adolescents between the age group of 16-18 is particularly tricky and would need academic understanding of their psychology, opined Andal Damodaran, president of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW-TN). "Adolescents get involved in complex cases. For example, when two juveniles elope and the parents of the girl child force her into marriage with a man much older than her, it is unsafe to send the child back with her parents. In such cases, all stakeholders should know to analyse the best interest of the child," she said.
"While rescuing children from tricky situations is important, rehabilitation is more crucial to ensure that they don't have bad influences," said MP Nirmala, Chairperson of Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
(This was first publihed in The New Indian Express)
