Kathmandu, December 7:

Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Urmila Aryal, today said that the National Centre for Children at Risk, which has been established to eliminate child abuse, will begin its operations from tomorrow.

“We felt the need of a centre of that can rescue children at risk as well as prevent child abuses,” she said.

The centre will operate under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. It will work together with the Nepal Police and the Central Children Welfare Board.

The centre will provide a toll-free hotline service where people can call up round-the-clock to

disseminate or seek information about the children lost or found.

“The issues of children and senior citizens are priority sectors of the ministry,” she said.

“We are also planning to reintegrate the destitute children.” She added that the ministry had finalised a comprehensive act on children. “It will be enacted soon.”

“The centre will record all kinds of incidents related to children. It will prepare a database for investigation and prediction of potential incidents in the future,” said Deepak Sapkota, director of the Central Children Welfare Board.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Niraj Pun expressed the hope that the centre will contribute significantly to prevent child abuse.

“Though we already have a nationwide network to look into crimes against children, we had no mechanism to disseminate information about the crimes,” he said, adding that the centre will help the police disseminate information about the crimes against children.