The governing board of the State Child Protection Society, which oversees the functioning of various schemes for the welfare of children, has not had a meeting for over two years, the Delhi government’s Women and Child Development Department has said in response to a Right to Information query.
File notings
In response to a query by child rights activist and former chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee Raaj Mangal Prasad, the Department said recently that the last meeting of the board happened on February 25, 2016.
Dated December 28, 2017, the reply, which Mr. Prasad said he received about a week ago, said the meeting before the February 2016 one was on March 11, 2015.
In addition, Mr. Prasad obtained file notings that showed a proposal to enhance wages of the society’s contractual staff based on new minimum wages in Delhi was supposed to be placed before the governing board. In fact, Women and Child Development Minister and society chairperson Manish Sisodia had directed the Department to place the proposal before the board, according to a note he signed on March 17, 2017.
The file then moved between different officials in the Department. However, there was no information on whether the proposal was moved. In a letter to the Secretary of the Women and Child Development Department and Mr. Sisodia on February 27, Mr. Prasad wrote that he found the “proposal was never moved and consequently the governing body meeting of State Child Protection Society could not take place”.
No progress
On Monday, he said there had still been no progress in the matter and programmes such as foster care and sponsorship for children in need, including the children of addicts and prisoners, had been affected by the delay in holding the meeting. He added that the board is supposed to meet at least once a year.
When asked about the matter, Mr. Sisodia told The Hindu that: “This shows how insensitive our IAS officers are. Many of them are experts in how to stop or delay work. Here is a government who forces them to work sensitively and to take swift actions.”
