Child protection needs to be proactive, not just reactive, underlines Hon’ble Justice Savitri Ratho of Orissa High Court at the Child Protection Mentorship Programme Valedictory Function

The Centre for Child Rights (CCR) at the National Law University Odisha (NLUO), supported by UNICEF, organized a valedictory function for the Child Protection Mentorship Program (CPMP) on 21st July 2025 at NLUO, Cuttack. Hon’ble Miss Justice Savitri Ratho, Judge of the Orissa High Court and Chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC), Smt. Manasmita Khuntia, Hon’ble Member, Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR), Mr Manna Biswas, Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF Odisha, Prof Ved Kumari, Vice Chancellor of NLUO and Patron-in-chief of CCR, and Prof Biraj Swain, Chief Minister’s Chair Professor and Director, CCR-NLUO distributed the certificates to the graduating mentees.

A total of 63 frontline workers in the child protection sector received their graduation certificates from the CPMP out of the 100 shortlisted participants. The cohort reflected a young and diverse background, comprising 46% women with an average age of 35 years. Bringing together experience from across sectors, 33% of the participants represent different government agencies, while 67% came from civil society organisations. Professionally, 54% have a background in social work, while 46% includes lawyers and child psychologists. With representation spanning 16 districts of Odisha, the programme demonstrated a significant statewide outreach. Additionally, the participants are working in diverse settings, with 36% in rural areas, 36% in urban areas, and the remaining working across both settings.

CCR is the oldest centre at NLUO, second oldest CCR in any NLU in India and the only Chair Professorship on Child Rights in India (law and non-law Universities included). It is committed to integrating the entire spectrum of child rights in teaching, research, advocacy and interventions and model building. Over the years, the centre has established itself as a leading stake-holder in all child rights’ issues such as juvenile justice, child participation, alternative care, child-friendly policing, child safety and survival, and the economic, social, and cultural rights of children and families and the determinant sectors.

Conceived as a skill upgradation initiative, the CPMP offered by CCR aims to empower a new generation of child protection practitioners by equipping them with knowledge, practical tools, skills, attitude and ethical perspective to effectively respond to the complex challenges that children across the State are presently facing. Over the course of 32 online sessions, 15 mentors shared their experiences and offered practical insights through a participatory learning process. Mr Ankit Kumar Keshri, UNICEF supported consultant with NLUO-CCR alongwith Dr Rashmi Rekha Baug, Assistant Prof of Law and Co-Director, Centre for Women and Law, Director, Centre for Poverty and Access to Justice, NLUO, led the course curation and execution for the inaugural batch, setting the template for the future batches to come.

Mr Keshri also made the efforts to convert the mentorship programme into credit-course compliant, academically bench-marked modules and processed the feedback for future improvement of the programme.

The graduates from the CPMP are expected to take lead in implementing government schemes, strengthen NGO interventions, work as statutory body members like Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) and Child Welfare Committees (CWC), and ultimately serve as watchdogs of child rights within communities across the State of Odisha.

The valedictory function, held in a hybrid format, witnessed the presence of dignitaries from the judiciary, academia, law enforcement, statutory bodies, civil society, and development partners. In total 109 participants joined the function — 89 in person and 20 online. Besides the key dignitaries, other distinguished guests who attended the function included: Shri Aurobindo Pattanaik, Member Secretary, Odisha State Legal Services Authority; Mohammed Habibur Raheman, Law Officer, OSCPCR; Mr Om Prakash Panda, Legal Consultant with OSCPCR and Dr Satyajit Mohanty, former DGP Odisha Police, former Chairperson Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) and also an Adjunct Professor of Law at NLUO. Mentors such as Dr Kalpana Purushothaman, Trauma-informed Counseling Psychologist, Author, and Child Rights Advocate, Mr Sonykutty George, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Hyderabad; Mr Govind Beniwal, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh and Mr Ghasiram Panda, Child Protection Consultant, UNICEF Odisha also joined digitally.

Prof Biraj Swain, Chief Minister’s Chair Professor and Director, CCR-NLUO spoke about CCR, the flagship interventions of the year gone by and the CPMP to set the context for the valedictory function.

While delivering the welcome address, Prof Ved Kumari, Vice Chancellor of NLUO and Patron-in-chief of CCR, noted that the most eminent child rights experts of India delivered the sessions covering the entire spectrum of child protection and child rights.

Mr Manna Biswas, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Odisha, emphasized that the real success of CPMP would be when the graduates will take up key roles within statutory child protection bodies like the CWC and JJB. He also emphasized the need for the government to take ownership of programmes like CPMP to ensure their institutionalization and long-term sustainability.

This was followed by a brief interactive discussion where both mentees and mentors were encouraged to share their experience.

Dr Satyajit Mohanty, Retired IPS, former DGP of Odisha, former Chairperson of the OPSC, and Adjunct Professor of Law at NLUO, shared his perspectives on child-friendly police stations and recommended that CPMP like programmes should also be designed specifically for police personnel.

Smt. Manasmita Khuntia, Hon’ble Member, OSCPCR, addressed the gathering on OSCPCR’s priorities in child protection. She underscored the urgent need to focus on peripheries of the State, where child protection concerns like child marriage, teenage pregnancy, school dropout are spiking and declining sex ratio remain more prominent. She emphasised that initiatives like CPMP are a step in the right direction to effectively address these pressing challenges.

The Presidential Address was delivered by Hon’ble Miss Justice Savitri Ratho. In her address, she underscored that child protection efforts must move beyond reactive responses and place stronger emphasis on prevention, early identification of risks, and community-based interventions. She observed that frontline child protection responders serve as the backbone of the system, playing a pivotal role in safeguarding children and ensuring the protection of their rights at every stage. Encouraging participants to meaningfully apply the knowledge and skills acquired through the mentorship programme, she called for sustained commitment towards strengthening child protection mechanisms across the State. Commending CCR-NLUO and UNICEF for successfully executing CPMP, Justice Ratho described the initiative as a significant step towards empowering frontline child protection cadres and reinforcing institutional capacity.

The mentorship certificates were distributed by dignitaries. The function concluded with a “Vote of Thanks” proposed by Mr Vijay Bhaskar, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director, Centre for Child Rights, Centre for Tribal Studies & Pro Bono Club and Associate Coordinator, Project Kutumb, along with Ms Akanksha Yadav, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director, Centre for Child Rights, NLUO. Other core members of the CCR present at the function and running the function were, Dr Swagatika Samal, Dr Pradipta Sarangi, Mr Amulya Swain and Mr T Swaraaj. The student members of CCR who have been selected through an open competitive process were Suraj, Kashish, Sushant, Akshat, Amit, Abhinandan, Jyotirmay, Subhadra, Shehnaaz and Ashwani. The valedictory function marked the formal conclusion of the four-month online mentorship programme for the 2025 batch.

For more information:

Mr Ankit Keshri: 9475133988

Dr Swagatika Samal: 8249012917