THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Social Justice Department has decided to pull out a strategy from the cold storage to help physically-challenged and seriously ill children who are unable to study in normal schools. The plan is to post protected teachers in welfare homes run by the Department. The move, it is expected, will also be to the advantage of the 100-odd sexual abuse victims lodged mostly in Nirbhaya homes. These children, because of the social stigma attached to their plight, are inclined to shut themselves out of the world.
“They are afraid to go out and they drift into depression, their studies suffering as a result,” said a top Department official. The presence of protected teachers could alter the situation. “These children can now be taught inside the homes. They might have to forfeit a year, but at least they will not lose touch,” he added. It was in 2010 that the Education Department decided to use protected teachers, as part of a rehabilitation plan, in children’s homes run by the state. “Then the objective was to take care of the education needs of children who cannot be part of a normal school,” a senior official said. “But now protected teachers are seen as an ideal rehabilitation tool for child abuse victims,” he added.
Majority of the child abuse victims are lodged in the eight Nirbhaya homes across the state. “Being average or above-average students, it would have been unfortunate if these children had simply wallowed in their torments in the obscurity of these welfare homes,” the official said. Official figures state that there are already around 12,000 protected teachers who have lost their jobs in previous years due to divisional fall. The phenomenon of Protected Teachers began with the Government Order on March 6, 1969, aimed at preventing the retrenchment of teachers, who had completed two academic years and drew two vacation salaries.
