Abstract
This paper explores the situation of children in the society and the various impediments which hinder their path of proper growth and well-being. In the midst of the socio-political intertwined relations, the government either turns a blind eye to their problems or fails to provide proper protection all the time. The issue needs to be comprehended and addressed with immediacy as their future remains jeopardized by the scythe of life and its occurrences. Children need care and love for proper development and the society cannot remain oblivious to their needs. The social workers need to come forward for aiding the tender population in their journey toward future. The workers should be committed at providing utmost assistance and support to ensure a good life for the children.
Keywords: child protection, society, social work
The onus lies on the shoulders of each government to comprehend and address the multiple issues of vulnerability of the children of the society. The current global scenario threatens the well-being of children and thus poses hindrance to the entire society at large.
It needs to be taken into account that the massive impact of failure in the state’s responsibility of child protection would aggravate and seriously requires urgent attention. What is alarming for the society is that certain global trends like migration, climate change and urbanization are accentuating the problems of child protection. Also, the governments are not engaging their favourable resources to safeguard the rights of the children. The issue of the growth of children without facing the clutches of violence in the caressing touch and safety of their family should be given paramount importance.
Under such circumstances, the framework for development post 2015 is of omnipotent significance for the betterment of the condition of children. Thus, there is a requirement for the governments, United Nation agencies and several other actors to be involved in chalking out the framework for replacing the Millennium Development Goals in the year 2015. An aim for child protection needs to be included in the agenda. They should have the resolution to ensure a free life for every child free from violence in the safety of the familial ones. The powers should delve deep into providing a careful and tender ear to the gazillion voices of the children. The groups that are vulnerable and commonly excluded need to be taken onto consideration to formulate a perfect framework for development after 2015. The other thing which needs to be addressed is the promotion of equitable achievement of all the other goals which are set in the framework which should be achieved by assessing the progress within the generally excluded groups including vulnerable children folk of the society.
The struggle for women’s rights and equality is hogging the limelight. But, the children too face equally ravaging brutalities, if not more as they are vulnerable to the overpowering of adults. While they cannot assemble by themselves to vanguard their rights and safety, the responsibility evokes the strong and immediate action of the power structures including social welfare units. Children face abuse, violence and are exploited all over the globe, thus rendering the issue the status of a global crisis. Innumerable children are growing up in those formative years of their lives away from their homes, in streets or institutional care in the vicinity of threat.
The lack of protection and care is the root cause of inequality that shrouds their tender lives. Under the baleful influence of gender norms, girls are subjected to sexual abuse, early marriage or domestic work, while the boys end up being engaged in child labor. The children with lack of care and protection are easily stigmatized. Their access to education gets thwarted and they are denied justice and social protection. These factors taken together with the lack of basic services which the children face diminish their life chances drastically.
This spiral of disadvantage needs to be countered with optimum urgency. A strategy is required to break the shackles of this evil and thus emancipate the children of the society to channelize them in the path of a better future and security. The social and economic disparities encompassing the world communities which have a major influence on the care and protection of children should be reduced. The child protection systems across the nations need to be supplemented with enhanced investments to make them strong and equitable. There should be optimum and persistent efforts to address the discriminatory factors and the stigmatization which are faced by the children who are left vulnerable being devoid of proper care.
The lack of protection and care gives rise to this unavoidable global crisis. Innumerable boys and girls are exploited through the evil of child labor. Also, many dwell on streets or are abused by their families. They are denied their human right to gain education. It is one of the foremost duties of the government to provide the quintessential leadership to implement the measures for care and protection of these gazillion vulnerable children and thus nurture the capacity innate in the tender lives to grow up becoming responsible and successful individuals thus contributing to the betterment of the society. However, it is a matter of great concern that the governments are not succeeding in their responsibility of fulfilling these obligations. The civil societies which are active in a state need to come up with unflinching efforts for the promotion of the cause of child protection.
This brings into action the child welfare organization which can play a pivotal role in the betterment of these vulnerable children. These welfare agencies need to work with the community and thus identify the children who require protection. They should also take to decision regarding the best possible way to provide protection to the identified children. There is a fundamental belief that the government should not intervene in matters related to family life except for the instances when parental care does not qualify the community standard and the child is thus left at the risk of getting harmed by it. The guiding principle is to act so that the child has the best interest.
The social workers involved with child welfare agencies can be involved in the planning procedure of delivering various services to these children. Family support, adoption and foster care programs, advocacy, residential care are all the avenues which the worker should delve deep into aiming at the safeguard of the child. The social worker needs to comprehend various factor related to the family, ward and the community and finally balance the well-being and safety of the child. It is to be remembered that a professional social work judgment can fend a better life for the child who would otherwise be left vulnerable to the brutalities of life.
The major ambition of the child welfare agency should be to place the child in a better situation in stark contrast to his or her prior victimization of neglect. It is a common belief among social workers that a child is best placed in the caressing domain of the family. Hence, the workers need to find resources to strengthen families. Taking a child away from the family for the purpose of protection is the last resort that can be taken.
If the requirement is to remove the child from the family, social workers should work closely with the family concerned so that the child can come back to the home to the earliest after the issue of safety is ensured. The legal outlook may however differ in this context and may seek to remove the guardianship permanently. Whatever be the judgment, the worker should give paramount care in ensuring that the child gets to be in the protection of good foster home.
It needs to be understood that the public is not always informed about the severe lack of resources which pose to threaten the children with neglect and abuse. Threats like poor mental health, lack of opportunity of education, stringent economic conditions of the family all thwart the path of the child’s development. Children need to attain the position of optimum priority for governments and also for the communities in which they sustain. The social workers can spread the word and increase awareness in this regard.
Load of cases and chronic shortage of resources hinder the aim of social workers pertinently. In spite of the innumerable impediments which may appear in the functioning of the workers, their work aid in the holistic betterment of the world society and sows the seeds of a better future, where there would be no such disparity and exploitation looming over the social structure.
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