WCD Department Organizes Training to Build Capacity of CWC Member
IJM supported the Government of Maharashtra’s Women and Child Development (WCD) Department, as a knowledge partner for the CWC Refresher Training for existing CWC members in August 2019. This was organized from 19th to 22nd August 2019 at YASHADA, Pune, for members from all 39 CWCs in the State of Maharashtra. The training was imparted to 144 CWC members by 24 experts in child protection and care. On the final day of the training 36 data entry operators were provided with specialised training in data management, reporting and documentation. The training focused on topics identified through a survey of the CWC members, 16 topics were discussed across the 4-day training.
“The training for the CWCs by the DWCD with IJM and UNICEF was extremely useful for all CWC members. I am extremely impressed and inspired by the work of IJM and I believe we need more such organisations to take this work forward.” said Dr. Hrishikesh Yashod, Commissioner of the Women and Child Development Department, Maharashtra State, after the Training, on 22 August 2019 at YASHADA Pune.
Since 2018, IJM has partnered with the WCD Department to provide expertise and knowledge to make CWCs child friendly in Mumbai.
The objective of the CWC is to provide custody and care to vulnerable and abandoned children. The child-friendly CWCs were thus developed based on requirements as per the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act 2015. A friendly atmosphere is developed through infrastructure changes with a warm reception room, a separate CWC meeting room and a special area for individual counselling. In order to effectively use this space, it is essential for all CWC members to have the procedural and emotional knowledge to manage cases that they encounter. For this the capacity of CWC members is being built through legal trainings, trauma sensitivity and counselling sessions and knowledge sharing with experts from the field. The CWC refresher training was an opportunity to provide standardized training to all members, and ensure that uniform processes were being implemented across the state.
