Child
Protection
Policy
Child Protection Policy
Child
At Bhumi, we are committed to ensuring all children are safe and protected. The safety, rights and well-being of children participating in our programs is a priority in our daily operations. This Child Protection Policy intends to guide every stakeholder of Bhumi including employees, volunteers, and program participants in developing appropriate relationships with the children we work with in ensuring a safe environment for them. This policy aims to protect children from intentional and non-intentional harm or abuse.
Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results 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.
0 - tolerance
We have zero-tolerance towards child abuse and will remove any employee, volunteer (or) program participant whose behaviour is found not in adherence to this policy.
Do's
- Treat every child with empathy and respect, regardless of his or her race, colour, gender, sexuality, language, religion, religious belief, heritage, political or other opinions, national (or) ethnic, social origin or property, disability, birth or another status.
- Listen to the children and respect their views
- Seek permission from your Coordinator if you wish to visit a centre apart from your stipulated hours of teaching
- Avoid placing oneself in a compromising or vulnerable situation when meeting with the children
- Always ensure that another adult is present when working in the proximity of children
- Take children for outings only in groups and with prior permission from the authority concerned
- Ensure the responsible use of computers and other information technology, and refrain from inappropriate usage, especially that relating to the creation, viewing, downloading or distribution of any inappropriate or offensive material, including, but not restricted to, abusive images of children, pornography or child pornography. Kindly refrain from sharing your mobile phones with children for purposes other than teaching or learning.
- Keep data about the children confidential and refrain from sharing it to any third party without the consent from the Programme Support Team
Dont's
- Use language or behaviour towards children that is inappropriate, harassing, abusive, sexually provocative, demeaning or culturally inappropriate
- Develop or induce or support in any way physical/sexual relationships with children
- Initiate any sort of physical contact with a child that may make the child or any responsible observer feel uncomfortable
- Develop any form of relationship or arrangement with children, which could in any way be deemed to be exploitative or abusive
- Place a child at risk of abuse or exploitation, or be aware of these and not report it or do anything about it
- Use physical means or corporal punishment to discipline or control a student
- Engage in any form of behaviour that has the potential to cause a student serious emotional or psychological harm
- Use or encourage the use of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or other intoxicating substances while interacting with Children or with other volunteers while in the vicinity of children, and providing such intoxicating substances to Children.
- Give cash or gifts to children in a personal capacity
- Bring individuals, who are not registered with Bhumi, to any Bhumi associated learning centre without prior permission from authority concerned
- Encourage any kind of infatuation
- Ask any child to meet alone outside campus (or) take the child to a private space which is away from the vicinity of other volunteers or children
- Not take/collect photos, videos, or stories of children and/or upload the same on blogs or any social networking sites without prior permission from the authority concerned.
This is not an exhaustive or exclusive list. The principle is that you should avoid actions or behaviour which may constitute poor practise or potentially abusive behaviour. If you come across any violation of the above policy by any employee/volunteer/program participant, contact Bhumi’s CARE committee.
