80-day campaign in Chennai to make child protection a social culture

CHENNAI: The Institution for Development Education and Action (IDEA) is conducting an 80-day public awareness and social mobilisation campaign that will conclude on November 20 (World Children’s Day).

Titled ‘80 Days for Child Protection’, the campaign is built around the theme ‘One Day. One Message. One Commitment’, with one a child protection message to be shared every day throughout the campaign.

The initiative seeks to move child protection beyond policies, programmes and occasional awareness drives, and encourage changes in everyday attitudes, relationships and actions towards children. The messages will cover children’s rights, different forms of violence, prevention, children’s participation, responsible responses, institutional safeguarding and collective action.

Andrew Sesuraj, director of IDEA, said, “Child protection should not remain the responsibility of only professionals and institutions, but should become a shared value reflected in the way children are raised, educated, heard and treated. Through these 80 days, we want to turn awareness into conversations, conversations into action, and action into a lasting culture of protection.”

IDEA has invited children and young people, parents, teachers, social workers, government departments, civil society organisations, institutions, media representatives, community leaders and citizens to participate in the campaign by sharing the daily messages, starting discussions and making commitments towards child protection.