'Delhi govt said police checks of mentors, other measures added to mentorship scheme'

New Delhi: Police verification of mentors, masking phone numbers of children and no in-person interaction between mentor and mentees are among the measures introduced by the Delhi government in its 'Desh Ka Mentor' programme to ensure the safety of children, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights said after receiving fresh communication from the Delhi government on the issue.

The mentors will not be allowed to meet the mentees offline and in case of a violation, he/she will be deregistered from the programme, the child rights body said in a press note.

The Commission had first raised safety concerns after a complaint it had received. While the Delhi government had responded to this, the NCPCR, unsatisfied with the response, had called for the scheme to be suspended pending reforms.

While since then the Delhi government has said the NCPCR's concerns were unfounded, the child rights body said it had received communication from the Directorate of Education (DoE) that several measures had been added to the programme to safeguard the children and their information such as police verification of all mentors, including the around 44,000, who had already been selected.

As per the circular that was communicated to the NCPCR, a report of criminal record (if any) about the registered mentor would be obtained from the concerned police station. In case any adverse report from police is received, the mentor would be de-registered immediately.

"The new safety measures will include a process in which the mentor will not have the contact details of the mentee and instead they will have to press 1 to contact a particular mentee," a senior official from the education department told Millennium Post, adding that the mentees will be assigned a code and the mentor will be able to reach them only through this.

"This way we protect the data and contact information of the child, the privacy and safety measures are being strengthened. It should not take too long to work it out as there are small changes to be made," the senior official said.

"Additional screening methods will also be introduced for mentors which the government is looking into currently," the government official added.

Meanwhile, the NCPCR said it was also told that all conversations of the mentors and mentees will be recorded by the department.

The 'Desh ke mentor' programme, which started in 2021, aimed at giving voluntary mentors to students in classes 9 to 12 in schools. The government assigns mentors between the ages of 18 and 35 to children on an app, which has been created by Delhi Technological University.

(With inputs from Aaisha Sabir)