Protecting Children from Abuse, Exploitation, and Violence and safe them from Hazardous environments so that they can enjoy their Childhood in their family, community as well as in the Country;

Ensuring children’s right to protection is one of the prime focused areas of Right Track. The main emphasis has been given to children living in difficult circumstances. These children mainly concentrated in areas adjacent to railway tracks and docks. Owing to the dysfunctional family structure these children are vulnerable to various anti-social activities and maladaptive behavior. They are exposed to all forms of abuse and exploitation at different levels. The focus of intervention has been on creating an enabling environment where these children will be able to express their feelings and would be able to explore their hidden talents. These children easily get involved in the labour force in search of livelihoods. Right Track is also focusing on children engaged as domestic workers and working in apartments in the city of Kolkata. The intervention concentrates on providing these children with a suitable environment where they can lead a life with dignity. Following are some of the major activities that are undertaken throughout the year for these children:

Orphan Sponsorship Program; In rural areas of the district of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India, an organization supporting more than 250 orphan children in the villages through the sponsorship programme. These orphan children are in extremely poor condition and deprived of all kinds of basic facilities which are needed for survival. The organization is dedicated to remembering the status of orphans by providing care and support to these families so that they can improve their status from marginalized and underprivileged situations and the family itself can live a life with dignity. Through this support, mothers become able to provide food for their children and children can continue their studies in school.

Establishing SafetyNet:  Unsafe migration in the target community of urban and rural area are a common phenomenon in the name of providing better opportunity, employment and marriage etc. Right Track is trying to make a community-based tracking and reporting system with support of local club, representative of Gram Panchayet / municipality where every person will report the migration purpose, place, date & reason etc against any type of human trafficking.  

Intervention.

• Empowering children through capacity building on legislation and laws.
• Sensitization amongst the partner community regarding the ill effects of addiction, 
• Involving the religious leaders in a campaign against abuse and exploitation faced by the children.
• Case Management.
• Providing Life Skill Education to make the children resilient to adverse situations.
  Providing Counseling support to minimize the level of trauma faced by the children in difficult situations.
• Strengthening the Child Protection Committee to create awareness throughout the respective community and capacitate them in facilitating the process of reunification of children (Child Domestic Workers) who are willing to go back to their native places.
• Linkages and Advocacy with Law Enforcement Agencies and Line Departments.
  Sensitization on Child Rights and Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act 2000 to the Law Enforcing Agencies.
• Creating a volunteer resource base as part of ethical resource generation to provide support to children in the form of tuition, skill-based vocational training, etc through linkages with various governmental, nongovernmental and private institutions etc.

Strategies for Child Protection: –

• Community sensitization and alliance building on child protection issues/s,
• Facilitating & strengthening of Child Protection Committee at the Village level to Block / Ward level of district & Municipality.
• Capacitate children, adolescents and youth on child protection issues including provisions under different legislation.
• Establishing linkages & networking with line departments and making them proactive towards child protection mechanisms,
• Ensuring participation of civil society in preventing children from abuse/violence and exploitation including Policy level advocacy towards sensitization in CLPRA, 
• Dissemination of information on different child-related legislation,

Child Protection: Achievement in last 10 years:

• More than 2500 child domestic workers were withdrawn from workplaces and mainstreamed into formal schools. 
• Total of 49 cases of child marriage have been prevented in the last 4 years in Maheshtala Municipality (MM) and KMC wards.
• In the communities i.e., Ward Level Child Protection Committee, Employers group, Adult Domestic Workers Group (ADWs) etc. have been formed in 22 wards to ensure child protection at the family and community level by entrusting responsibilities to them. 
• Making liaisons with the District Child Protection Officer (DCPO), local police stations, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), and Deputy Commissioner of Police to implement and extend a special protective mechanism for the children.  There is close coordination with Sarva Shiksha Mission schools to strengthen the approach of ‘Right to Education’. Here we have also done a school orientation program on child protection.
• Adult Domestic Workers created a forum for safeguarding child domestic workers from any kind of evil.