Minister inaugurates fourth bridge school under CAP project

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 30. The Child and Police Project (CAP), a joint programmme of the Andhra Pradesh Police and Dr. Reddy's Foundation for Human and Social Development to rehabilitate children working under hazardous circumstances, would shift to its permanent premises at Chandanagar on the outskirts of the city by August-September, this year.

The innovative programme which commenced with a modest strength of 320 children a few years ago has seen three residential camps and an equal number of non-residential camps so far. The fourth transitional bridge school for the rehabilitated children was inaugurated by the Home Minister, Mr. T. Devender Goud, at the Zilla Parishad High School, Bolarum, here on Monday.

With this, the number of children rehabilitated in the Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts under the CAP project has risen to 2,269. The children in the age group of six to 14 years were working as domestic servants, mechanics, helpers in wine shops, construction workers, farm helps and so on.

"No parents would like to abandon their children or send them to work. It is only their helplessness stemming out of poverty that compels them do so," the Home Minister said. "Children can be shaped into whichever way we want them to be, all they needed was affection", he said.

Stating that the State Government was spending a whopping Rs. 3,200 crores for primary education in the State, he said a hike of Rs. 650 crores was given to the department in this year's annual budget. "But, the Government alone cannot ensure total literacy. Voluntary organisations should also participate in a big way," he said.

The DCP (Traffic), Mr. M.V. Dinakar Prasad, said policemen "see degeneration from close quarters everyday by virtue of their job and could diagnose the system better". Hence, the police could handle the rehabilitation process of child labour empathetically.

Dr. Anji Reddy of Reddy Labs, Mr. Arvind Rao, Additional Commissioner of Police, Mr. N. Sambasiva Rao, DIG, Hyderabad Range, Dr. C.R. Naidu, DIG, Maithri and others were present.

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Section  : Southern States
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