A health ministry project that aims to protect children from abuse is off to a disappointingly slow start, leaving many kids in the hands of potential abusers, sources said.

Only a few municipalities have joined the nationwide program, which started in April.

The ministry is trying to encourage public health workers, child counseling centers and physicians to work together to identify families at risk of child abuse.

In this context, teaching child-rearing skills and offering support to parents are considered key.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare earmarked 2 billion yen this fiscal year-roughly half the expected costs-for cities and towns to implement home visits for at-risk families.

The ministry had hoped 957 municipalities would make use of the funds, with prefectural and municipal governments bearing the remainder of the tab.

But by the end of June, only 125 municipalities, or 13 percent of the expected total, had started such projects, sources said.

The ministry plan came ahead of a revision of the Child Abuse Prevention Law that took effect Oct. 1.

The revised law obliges any person who knows of a child being abused or even suspects such abuse to report the case to the appropriate authorities.

Emphasizing prevention, the ministry project aims to prevent abuse through early intervention within families.

The ministry had hoped public health workers would visit at-risk families with newborns, proactively teaching inexperienced parents what to expect from their infants and how to properly care for them.

The ministry guidelines include such warning signs of neglect as ``households that fail to take babies for scheduled health checkups four months after they are born.''

However, local government officials say it is not easy to identify which households are in need of intervention, and that more specific criteria are needed.

``We need more ways to identify households where child abuse could take place,'' said an official of the Kita-Kyushu city government.

Complicating the matter is the immense scope of the ministry project. Not only does it aim to prevent child abuse, it also is meant to offer parents advice on raising their kids and childhood development.

``The project covers too wide a range, from advice on child-rearing, to abuse prevention. It is difficult to know what to do,'' said an Osaka city government official.(IHT/Asahi: October 20,2004) (10/20)