Two child care institutes under scanner for violations in Haryana’s Nuh

The functioning of two child care institutes (CCI) in Tauru, Nuh district, has come under the scanner after an inquiry report into their functioning by the Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) flagged violations of the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act).

The 11-page report, a copy of which is with the Hindustan Times, was submitted to the women and child development (WCD) director on Monday. The inspection was done on July 16 by an HSCPCR team, headed by its chairperson Jyoti Bainda.

Prime among the violations flagged by the report are that the two CCIs—Orphan In Need and Deepalaya Children Home — allegedly did not maintain files, no procedure was followed while shifting children to CCIs and no child was placed for adoption.

The commission has now recommended that the WCD set up a high-level committee to look into the functioning of these homes and the NGOs to ascertain their genuineness. It has also recommended that the charge of CWC-Nuh be handed over to the CWC of adjoining districts for the duration of the enquiry to ensure documents cannot be tampered with. Additionally, the HSCPCR had demanded that the background of all children residing at the two CCis be verified and they be shifted to other centres.

Meanwhile, the CCI management has dismissed all charges, saying their documentation was immaculate.

Bainda she found that the Nuh CWC and district child protection unit (DCPU) were sending children from different states to CCIs without informing the state child rights commission, which is a violation of Section 58 of the JJ Act.

At CCI Orphan In Need, nearly 42km from Gurugram, the team found that documentation was lacking, no child was placed for adoption, guardians of many children had not appeared before the CWC/DCPU and only Muslim children were lodged in one of the homes, Bainda said.

“There were 55 children in the home, 25 were reported to be enrolled in schools but no supporting documents were presented. The remaining children were reportedly receiving tuition on campus, for which only two teachers were engaged,” Bainda said.

Though the home was registered on December 12, 2017 for five years, they allegedly did not present any registration certificate for the NGO and the management committee was not constituted as per sub-section 2 of Section 53 of the Act.

“The CCI has adequate infrastructure, but there’s no approach road,” Bainda said, adding that the centre is three kilometers off the main road.

Another major issue was the files allegedly had an affidavit of surrender by the guardian and the affidavit had objectionable clauses. “Among the clauses were—Guardian not to hold NGO responsible in case of injury/death of child; admission of child in CCI at guardian’s own risk and responsibility; home will not be held responsible in case the child runs away,” Bainda said.

Bainda said that the CWC and DCPU officials also gave conflicting statements on absence of documents for transfer from Palwal.

Chairperson of CWC, Nuh Mohammadi, refuted the claims stating, “Most of the homes have minor issues and they can be rectified. We have met the guardians of the children who are orphan and the allegations are baseless.”

Anish Musa (40) founder of Orphan in Need, said, “The files are maintained as per the CWC direction; we are trapped in a fight between HSCPCR and CWC. The children are Muslims as they are from Nuh.”

Several violations were also reported from another CCI Deepalaya, in Gurbethi village of Tauru.

Rahul Sharma, in-charge of the home, said there were violations but he has updated all the files and completed documentation and submitted the same to the CWC. There are 60 children in this home.

First Published: Aug 08, 2018 04:36 IST