Tamil Nadu: Rs 25 lakh corpus fund for juvenile welfare created

CHENNAI: A Juvenile Justice (JJ) Fund has been created with a corpus of Rs 25 lakh for the welfare and rehabilitation of children as early as in November 2016 and orders issued for establishment of a place of safety at a cost of another Rs 42 lakh in December the same year, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court was informed on Thursday.

When a suo motu writ petition came up before a Bench of Justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and R Dhandapani on Thursday, the State Social Welfare Department filed an additional affidavit stating that repair and renovation work of the existing infrastructure in the government reception unit has been undertaken.
It further stated that orders have been issued for imparting vocational training to children of government child care institute and that Rs 9.65 lakh have been sanctioned for imparting modern vocational training to the children for 2017-18. Skill development training has been given to 200 trainees of the institute, besides implementing such other compliance relating to JJ Act. 

The Bench said it was for the amicus curie to go through the additional counter and come out with suggestions, if any, in so far as the implication of JJ Act in the State as directed by the Supreme Court. The matter was later adjourned till June 11.

PIL was based on a judgment dated February 9 last of the SC on another PIL from Sampurna Behura, who had raised various questions over virtual non-implementation of laws beneficial to voiceless children, particularly Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It highlighted failure of States to implement various provisions like establishment of child welfare committees, justice boards and special juvenile police units. She also prayed for directives to improve living conditions of juveniles in conflict with law and raised several other human rights issues.

The SC Bench on February 9 had issued a set of directives. Since the involvement of the machinery of the State is critical to child rights and effective implementation of JJ Act, it would be appropriate if each HC and its Juvenile Justice Committees continued their proactive role in the welfare of children, the Bench had said. To make the involvement and process more meaningful, the Bench had requested the Chief Justices of all HC to register proceedings on their own so that roadblocks, if any, were meaningfully addressed.