The State Secretariat is planning to track the children issues in the various news papers and disseminating the information to the key stakeholders i.e. NGOs, Civil Society Organizations, Key Government Departments, Child Welfare Committees etc.,. As we also witness that the children who are in need of care and protection, conflict with law, are been subjected to wide coverage both in print and electronic media without following any protocols, even though the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, Section 21 clearly states that:

“No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or visual media of any enquiry regarding a juvenile in conflict with law under this Act shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars calculated to lead to the identification of the juvenile nor shall any picture of any such juvenile be published’’

Irrespective of the Act existing in the State, the media continuously show the program/news and information on children with conflict with law. There is a great need to develop a media protocol and the Child Welfare Committees need to highlight all these issues at their respective district Media forums. We hope that the news clippings will help the Civil Society Organizations/Child Welfare Committees/JJBs for initiating appropriate measures under Section 21 of JJ Act, 2000.

The Secretariat of APACR would like to bring News Journal - Media Tracking every month and will be shared with various civil society networks and Groups. Based on the feedback and analysis of the child news tracking, APACR is planning to organize the Media Workshops for sensitizing the Media Representatives on Children issues as well as developing the protocol, for reporting the children issues.

The media tracking is broadly divided in to 3 major categories i.e. Education, Protection and Health and every month the news will be analyzed and sharing with various key stakeholders and it will also used as advocacy tool for identifying the gaps and focus on the issues at various levels. The news tracking is divided in to 3 major categories i.e. Education, Protection, and health. We hope this analysis of the news can be used as advocacy tool for identifying the gaps and focus on the issues.