Where have 2L kids gone? Conflicting surveys irk SC

In the gap of one year, two Central agencies have come out with two conflicting figures on the number of children in childcare institutions (CCI) with the difference between both surveys as huge as two lakh.

Perturbed by the survey reports, one by NCPCR and NGO Childline prepared on March 27, 2017 that reported 4.30 lakh children, and another by the Ministry of Women and Child Development dated March 30, 2018 giving a figure of 2.61 lakh children, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre, “Where have the two lakh children gone?”

The mismatch was pointed out to the court by amicus curiae Aparna Bhatt assisting the court in a PIL relating to status of orphanages across the country. Going through the voluminous report running into 40,000 pages, Bhatt compiled findings of the survey report prepared in March 2017 where a team of NCPCR and Childline visited each home and prepared a detailed study of children in 9,589 CCIs. This figure came to around 4.30 lakh. Next, she examined a status report prepared by the WCD Ministry compiling data from each State on the number of CCIs and the children staying in them. It stated a total of 2.61 lakh children in 8,631 homes. Pointing to the recent instances of sexual abuse of girls in shelter homes located in Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and Deoria (UP), Bhatt said the gap in the two figures cannot be ignored and must be investigated.

The Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said, “This concerns two lakh children and nobody knows where they are. It’s a serious situation where have the children gone.” The Centre represented by advocate R Balasubramanium informed the court that shelter homes and CCIs are run under the supervision of States and UTs and the Centre practically has to rely on the figures provided by them. He said there was a possibility of error creeping into the preparation of the data by States. But the Bench wondered whether the margin of error would be this huge.

Finding no answers forthcoming, the Bench proposed having an oversight committee set up in each State/UT and at the Central level to examine the functioning of these CCIs.

These may be headed by either a retired judge of the High Court or a retired bureaucrat.

The Centre sought time to seek instructions while the States consented to having such a body.

The affidavit by the Centre further pointed out that out of 8,631 CCIs, a total of 7,109 are registered, 401 are in the process of registration, 290 were temporarily registered while only 64 were unregistered. In addition, there are 1,189 orphanages under the control of Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes (Supervision and Control) Act 1960. Kerala is the only State that is yet to provide information about unregistered CCIs.