Study to ascertain child care homes with illegal beneficiaries

PANAJI: Adhering to the High Court order, the Child Welfare Committees (CWC) and District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) have jointly started an exercise for the first time for identification of child care institutions run by various NGOs as well as prepare social investigation report of each child admitted in these institutions to ascertain whether he or she is actually in need of care and protection or parents are paying for the stay and boarding.

A petition was filed before the High Court questioning the legal status of the 2000-odd children housed in 78 institutions allegedly without the mandatory child welfare committee orders. This exercise is expected to get completed in two months.

According to Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, the child care institutions are allowed to admit only those children who are either in conflict with law or victim of any abuse that requires care and protection subject to a report from the child welfare committee.

The committee on being satisfied through the inquiry that the child is in need of care and protection, on consideration of Social Investigation Report submitted by child welfare officer passes necessary order for placement of the child in children’s home or fit facility or specialised adoption agency for the purpose of adoption for a long-term or temporary care.

According to the data received from the department of women and child development, around 2090 children were allowed to live at the facility illegally without any inquiry and social investigation before deciding on his/her restoration (transfer to different CCIs) under Section 36 of the JJ Act, 2015. In the past, the child welfare committee has found serious lacunae in the functioning of these institutions with records not updated for years, and children illegally occupying the facility were mostly of the working parents who have migrated from outside state.

The committee has also found that out of 78 registered child care institutions, around 10-15 are recognised as properly run while remaining are operating as boarding facilities and enjoy the status and benefits of special homes.

However, the child welfare committee did not take any action against these institutions and boarding facilities wrongly registered under the Act in question despite knowing that it has been keeping children of working parents as well as victim of abuse without producing them before the child welfare committee which is prerequisite under Section 31 of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

In a shocking revelation, the women and child development department has recently admitted in the High Court that there are no records of over 2000 children who were placed in different child care institutions for care and protection.

The department in its preliminary report has said that there are 78 child care institutions in the state and majority of them are run as boarding facilities which are illegally or wrongly registered as child care institutions under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

According to the data submitted to the High Court these child care institutions have admitted 2615 children of which 512 children are with the orders of the child welfare committee, 87 children are shown as pending orders from the CWCs and 2009 children are shown as without orders of the CWCs.