National tracking system for missing and vulnerable children

The centrally sponsored Integrated Child Protection Scheme aims at contributing to the improvement of the children who are in difficult circumstances. The scheme is being implemented by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. One of the tasks entrusted under ICPS to the State Governments is the setting up of a child tracking system which will facilitate data entry and matching of missing and found children, and also enable follow up of the progress of children who are beneficiaries of the Scheme.

The 'TrackChild’ portal has been designed and developed adhering to the guidelines provided in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and Model Rules 2007 and the provisions laid down in the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS).

Objectives of TrackCHild portal

1. To ensure timely tracking of “Missing Children”
2. To ensure ultimate repatriation and rehabilitation of the missing children.
3. To ensure proper care and development of the children of the Child Care Institutes (CCIs).
4. To set up a framework for participating organizations involved in the process.

Features of TrackChild portal

Broadly TrackChild software has two modules, the information of the children, who are already covered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Child) Act 2000 and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is to be entered in the software by the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) functionaries including Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) & Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) members, and the information of the missing children being reported is to be entered and updated at the police stations.

‘TrackChild’ holds the live data base of ‘missing’ & ‘found’ children and tracks the overall progress of the children living in the CCIs. The portal also provides an integrated virtual space for all stakeholders & ICPS bodies which includes Central Project Support Unit (CPSU), State Child Protection Society/Units and District Child Protection Units (DCPU), Child Care Institutions (CCIs), Police Stations, Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), etc. in the 35 State/UTs to facilitate tracking of a “Child in distress”.

Management and monitoring of TrackChild

At the State level, SCPS with support of DCPUs set up and manage the Child Tracking System. The DCPUs are responsible for carrying out an exercise to map all services available to children in difficult circumstances and vulnerable children and their families in a district. This would include for example, location and contact details of all police stations, child care institutions, hospitals, primary health care (PHC) systems, paediatricians, members of CWCs and JJBs, Childline Services, etc. The DCPU will also maintain a database of all children in institutional care and non-institutional care at the district level with the ultimate goal of developing a comprehensive, integrated, live database for children in need of care and protection.

‘TrackChild’ Mobile

The citizen interface of ‘TrackChild’ system may be accessed through mobile devices. A citizen can access the portal through mobile devices to use ‘specialised’ light weight interfaces to ‘report a missing’/ ‘report a found’ children or to search a missing/found children. A mobile app has also been developed & made available in ‘Google Play Store’ & ‘NIC App Store’ for downloading. The SMS Alert system sends alert messages to pre-defined stakeholders for initiating prompt action at their end for addressing the issue.

Source : TrackChild Portal