The Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC) of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the State government to submit a report on the conditions prevailing in the Child Care Institutions (CCIs), also known as childcare homes.
Responding to a news article titled ‘The care homes violating child rights’ published in The Hindu on November 17, the JJC of the High Court has directed the Juvenile Welfare, Correctional Services and Welfare of Street Children to submit a detailed report on the functioning of the CCIs.
The news article highlighted the violations in some licensed CCIs being run by various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) across the State. It raised the issues of how some minors were kept in homes for a long period, death of a girl in a CCI, missing children, leakage of profiles from a girl’s shelter home, alleged sexual abuse of children with special needs, unauthorised homes and poor review on functioning of some Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) among other problems.
Following the directions of the JJC of the High Court, Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW), Differently Abled and Senior Citizens Principal Secretary G. Jayalakshmi has directed the district Collectors to submit a report on the conditions in the CCIs.
“The district Collectors should inquire whether the CCIs are providing basic facilities to the inmates, any violation of child rights in homes, review on functioning of the CWCs, leak of profiles of minor girls, whether inspections conducted regularly by the departments concerned as per Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and other issues, if any,” the Principal Secretary said.
The district Collectors should submit the list of the Child Care Institutions functioning in their respective districts under JJ (CPC) Act, 2015, r/w. JJ (CPC) Act, 2021 and the Rules, the order said.
“As some Collectors did not submit the report on the conditions in CCIs in some districts, we have requested the JJC of the High Court to extend the time for submitting the report and the Committee accepted our request,” an officer told The Hindu on December 24 (Sunday), adding that a detailed report would be submitted to the High Court soon.
