New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with the Delhi education department has started an "early warning system" to track absenteeism. It tracks students' attendance and the parents of absent students receive text messages. This has cut down the students' persistent school bunking.
DCPCR helpline also calls the absentee students' families, and the commission also intervenes if the child is facing any issue such as parental death or child marriage. The DCPCR team or the school management committee members also visit home if the issue is severe and important. With this collaboration, 3,451 students have been identified, out of which 1,630 students have been brought back to school.
A 16-year-old girl from Nangloi, JJ colony area was being coerced into getting married but the DCPCR intervened by tracking the consistent absence of the girl student. Now, the child's family is being counseled regularly and the child is attending school and preparing for her 10th Board exams. DCPCR and Department of Education found that the most prominent reasons that caused students' frequent absence from school include severe sickness, bunking, death of a family member, children being involved in household work, uninterested in studies, child labour and child marriage.