Child Protection Policy
Teach To Lead is committed to protecting the safety and well-being of children. Thus, Teach To Lead has adopted this Child Protection Policy (CPP) requiring organisation representatives to conduct themselves appropriately with the children who participate in Teach To Lead related programmes as well as take reasonable measures to ensure the safety of such children.
This policy aims to define the behaviours and actions that constitute child abuse. Additionally, it will lay out the organisations expectations for behaviour, the scope of application of the policy and guidelines for reporting and redressal.
What constitutes child abuse?
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Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power (Source: A report of the consultation on child abuse prevention, WHO, Geneva, 29-31 March 1999, defines child abuse as).
Teach To Lead Staff and Fellows must be aware of the following types of abuse and understand that they are prohibited as per this policy.
Scope of Application of the Child Protection Policy
This CPP is applicable to all part-time and full-time employees (including but not limited to Staff, Fellows, Interns) of Teach To Lead and any other person who has been bound to the Child Protection Policy as per their contractual agreement with Teach To Lead.
This policy will be shared and explained to all school HMs/Lead teachers.
Our government schools are governed by their respective state level Child Protection Policies.
We will encourage our low income private schools to adopt this policy if they do not have a similar one of their own.
Expected Conduct
Expected Behaviour and Actions
Treat every child with empathy and respect, regardless of their race, colour, gender, sexuality, language, religion, religious belief, heritage, political/ other opinion, national/ ethnic/ social origin or property/ disability/ birth/ other status.
Listen to children and respect their views.
Ensure that physical contact with a child is respectful, culturally appropriate and essential to the purpose of your interaction with the child.
Establish an atmosphere that fosters the development of children through your actions and words.
Always take permission from children before taking their photos or videos.
Keep all personal information about children or their parents/guardians confidential and secure and ensure that such information is dispensed to only those individuals who are legitimately entitled to it.
Attend all the applicable training sessions and workshops on the CPP and child-related laws conducted by the organization. Ensure you implement the lessons learned from such sessions and workshops.
Prohibited Behaviour and Actions
Do not use language or behaviour towards children that is inappropriate, harassing, abusive, sexually provocative, demeaning, intimidating, offensive, discriminatory or culturally insensitive.
Do not use any form of corporal punishment on children.
Do not place a child in an environment where there is the risk of harm or abuse and do not harm or abuse any child physically, emotionally or sexually.
Do not share with or show children (electronically or in any other form) inappropriate content including pornographic material or material encouraging crime, violence, terrorism, racism, sexism, self-harm, suicide, cruelty and gambling.
Do not develop, induce or support physical or sexual relationships with children, in any way.
Do not use or encourage the use of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or other intoxicating substances while interacting with children or provide such intoxicating substances to children.
Do not develop any form of relationship or arrangement (financial or otherwise) with children which could in any way be deemed to be exploitative or abusive. Do not use child labour in any form.
Teach To Lead’s Measures to Prevent Child Abuse
On-Boarding Staff and Fellows:
• All Fellows and Staff must self declare previous cases of criminal offence and child mistreatment as part of their application to Teach To Lead.
• All Fellows and Staff will undergo child protection awareness training.
• Enforce child safety guidelines that are required to be followed by the Staff and Fellows during excursions, picnics and educational tours. Our Field Trip Policy is included in Annexure 6.
• Ensure that all Fellows and Staff sign a copy of the Child Protection Policy.• Attempt to ensure that visitors to a school are accompanied by a Staff Member or a Fellow.
• Where the organisation undertakes any research on children or collects data on them, ensure that children are not harmed or traumatized in any way during the process.
• Partnerships to Support Implementation where possible - Partner with organisations to conduct age-appropriate sessions on the personal safety of Students (including modules/materials on body parts, online safety, protection from child abuse and services available for the protection of children). Partner with organisations working in the area of child abuse and child rights, to support Staff and Fellows in effective implementation of the CPP.
Redressal Mechanisms: Assigning responsibility to specific individuals or groups of individuals within the organisation to ensure procedures and arrangements are in place for effective implementation of the policy and redressal of child abuse complaints.
These include:
City Child Protection Officer (CCPO): This is the nodal person in every city to ensure compliance to the CPP. List of names and contact details of the CCPO is provided in Annexure 5. For any type of this policy, please reach out to your CCPO.
City Child Protection Committee (CCPC): This is a committee in a city to help the CCPO with redressal decisions and will conduct reviews (once every 2 months) of the working of the CPP in the city and implement any additional measures to strengthen child protection measures.
National Child Protection Officer (NCCPO): This is a person who oversees the policy at a national level to help the CCPCs with redressal decisions when escalated. He/she will conduct reviews (once every 3 months) of the working of the CPP in the organisation and implement any additional measures to strengthen child protection measures.
The constitution, roles and responsibilities of CCPO, CCPC and NCCPO is provided in Annexure 3.
There are 3 scenarios under which the Child Protection Policy can be violated. The guidelines set out in this section will govern the reporting and redressal of each of the respective scenarios: - Where the alleged victim is any child (Teach To Lead or non-Teach To Lead) and the alleged offender is a Staff or Fellow - Where the alleged victim is a Teach To Lead student and the alleged offender is not a Staff or Fellow. - Where the alleged victim can be any child and the alleged offender is anybody and where the offence is one of sexual abuse.
For Guidelines on Complaint Redressal Mechanism and additional information
