National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is working on a common framework for rescue and rehabilitation of street children across the country, an NCW official said.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the proposed framework, will provide minimum standards for care and protection to street children, the official said.
The framework is proposed to be developed in consultation with civil society organizations, state commissions, Child Welfare Committees and other important stakeholders.
NCPCR Chairperson Stuti Kacker had recently held a meeting with a group of street children from the city to obtain their views to formulate a SOP for rehabilitation of street children in the country.
"SOP will have measures to ensure that no child is forced to live on the street. It will be framed keeping in view the their problems and suggestions," the official said.
"We invited suggestions from the street children and encouraged them to share their experiences and to freely express their views," he said.
The children shared their stories of how they were forced to flee their homes and got in the habits of drug abuse and stealing, the official said.
"Some of the suggestions we received from children includes a need to create contact points for rescue of children, rehabilitated children to become peer educators, measures for protecting children from drug peddlers and gangsters and providing counseling to the rescued children," he said.
