Guardian angel of minors | UTSAH (Universal Team for Social Action and Help), Guwahati

UTSAH (Universal Team for Social Action and Help), GuwahatiKey person: Miguel Das Queah, FounderYear of inception: 2011 As a young graduate in 2008, Miguel Das Queah found the answer to the social stigma and systemic injustice around him in a question, posed to him by then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at an interaction. As he ranted about all that was wrong in the country, Kalam asked him, “What can you do to make it right? Do you have a plan?” Miguel did not. Kalam’s advice—“Go out and do things. You’ll figure it out”—became his North Star.Miguel’s initial plan was to start an NGO in Delhi focused on youth issues. That changed when at an event at an old age home in Guwahati, he met celebrated litterateur Mamoni Raisom Goswami, who asked him what he was doing in Delhi. Her words—“If you can’t clean your own courtyard, you can’t clean the world”—stuck with him.Miguel did start in his own courtyard—Hafiz Nagar, a slum near his home in Guwahati. In his conversations with residents, he found that while the adults spoke of abuse, low wages and hardship, the children were mostly silent. It alarmed him. Having been a survivor of child sexual abuse, Miguel realised that children often lack the language, space or safety to express their problems. He had finally found his purpose: child welfare, protection and empowerment. This became UTSAH, meaning inspiration in Assamese, the organisation Miguel formally registered in 2011. Starting with informal education sessions and cleanliness drives, UTSAH pivoted to structured legal intervention when during Holi in March 2013, it handled its first case of child sexual abuse, among the earliest prosecuted under the POCSO Act in the region. The conviction in 2014 placed UTSAH at the centre of Assam’s child protection framework.In 2017, UTSAH and the Assam Police jointly designed a structured programme focused on child-friendly policing. Formally launched in 2019 as the Assam Police Sishu Mitra Programme, it placed empathy at its core—training police personnel to interact with children without uniforms, ensure timely production before Child Welfare Committees, maintain proper documentation, coordinate with social workers and uphold justice.In 2023, the Supreme Court upheld Sishu Mitra and UTSAH’s founder as a shining example at annual stakeholders’ consultations on child protection. Miguel could not have asked for a better validation. n- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Jan 24, 2026 21:17 IST

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Guardian angel of minors | UTSAH (Universal Team for Social Action and Help), Guwahati

Miguel Das Queah has helped many a child in Assam overcome their fear and speak up against sexual abuse by enabling a safe, child-friendly policing environment

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