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In Jharkhand state, India, children face a wide array of protection risks such as trafficking, child labor, rape and sexual assault, child marriage, and recruitment into armed groups. To help address the protection risks to children, the Government of India is currently implementing an Integrated Child Protection Scheme, which calls for the formation of a Village Level Child Protection Committee (VLCPC) at local level and also linked Child Protection Committees at higher levels. Ideally, the VLCPCs monitor the risks to children, report to authorities serious violations against children, and help to prevent violations against children at local level.
The available global evidence suggests that because the VLCPCs are being implemented in a top-down approach, they will likely face challenges related to local ownership, effectiveness, and sustainability. The goal of this inter-agency action research is to enable and systematically test the effectiveness of community-led processes of child protection in Jharkhand that are community owned, provide a civic platform for child protection, and can help to support the VLCPCs.
The action research entailed extensive collaboration between five agencies (the Core Group): CINI, Chetna Vikas, Child Resilience Alliance (formerly the Columbia Group for Children in Adversity), Plan India, and Praxis.
