Precarious family milieu forces children to homes’

Precarious family milieu forces children to homes’

News:

Study show most children at childcare institutions are not orphans, but belong to family structures that are unable to look after them.

Important Facts:

• The report, Mapping of Child Care Institutions under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, was conducted by Childline India Foundation and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
• The study records a total of 9,589 shelters across the country. These include shelters for children who are in need of care and protection such as those who don’t have a home or parents as well as children in conflict with law
• The survey found more than 3.7 lakh children housed at these centers.
• Children of single parents constituted a third of the total number of total children in homes, accounting for 1,20,118 children. This number is more than double that of children orphaned, abandoned and those surrendered by their parents.
• Most children at childcare institutions are headed by unwed mothers, abandoned wives, widows and in some cases single fathers.

Reasons for children being sent to shelters:

• Economic vulnerability or a dysfunctional family situations are one of the primary reasons for children being sent to shelters
• There is no extended family or protective structure at community level to support such vulnerable families
• There were 19,834 children suffering from mental and physical disabilities and as many as 4,999 were infected by HIV or suffering from AIDS.
• Poor follow-up – The Juvenile Justice Act requires that a child brought to a home be produced before a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours but unfortunately many child care institutions (CCIs) recorded a poor rate of producing a child before the CWC
• Only 19.3% of CCIs made an effort to trace the biological parents of a rescued child.
• Delayed Mapping – Despite the Juvenile Justice Act of 2000, which mandates the auditing and monitoring of childcare institutions, it took a Supreme Court order in 2013 to begin the first-ever mapping of 9,589 homes, including observation homes, special homes and open shelters, across the country

Legal Protection:

• The Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children), 2015, lays down that sending children to an institution should be the last resort and that they have the right to be reunited with their families at the earliest.

Way Forward:

• There is a need to focus on measures like sponsorship schemes laid down under the JJ Act so that families can be helped with expenses towards education of children and they can remain within their families and don’t have to be abandoned
• The child care work cannot remain to be the responsibility of one department. The reputed NGOs may be involved in monitoring function.
• Unregistered institutions need to be registered immediately.
• A database may be developed for public dissemination.
• The corporate sector may be persuaded to adopt any such institution.
• Bal kalyan Samiti existing in every district need be activated.
• All the government schemes meant for child welfare may be implemented in such institutions.