The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Drive to register children’s homes

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Friday, Oct 23, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Drive to register children’s homes

T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI: The State government has launched a drive on registration of children’s homes.

District Collectors, Superintendents of Police and the district-level officials of the Social Welfare department have been advised to survey such homes and inform those who manage the homes regarding the legal requirement of registration, a senior official in the State Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme department says.

Under an amendment made in 2006 to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, all institutions, run by the State government or voluntary organisations, for children in need of care and protection should be registered. They should register themselves with the District Social Welfare Officers, the official explains.

Though the law stipulates that the registration should be made within six months of the commencement of the amendment, greater thrust is being given to ensure its implementation.

According to a conservative estimate, there are 200 children’s homes in the State. The registration is essential as this will help the authorities to prevent abuse of children and human trafficking, the official says. Besides, the registration has become essential if children’s homes are to avail themselves of assistance being given by the Central government. The recently-launched Centrally-sponsored scheme, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), offers the scope for the Central assistance.

Aimed at creating a safe and secure environment for the children who are in need of care and protection and for those who are in conflict with law, the ICPS brings under one umbrella several existing child protection programmes — Programme for Juvenile Justice, Integrated Programme for Street Children and Scheme for Assistance to Homes [Shishu Greh] to promote in-country adoption — and initiates new interventions.

One of the features of the scheme is to support the creation of new institutional facilities and maintenance of existing institutional facilities. For each child in institutional care, an individual care plan will be developed by the agency concerned in consultation with the District Child Protection Society (DCPS) within a month. Once agreed upon by the DCPS, the individual care plan shall be forwarded within a fortnight for approval to the Child Welfare Committees (CWC)/Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB). The agency will report to the DCPS on the execution of the individual child care plan within six months of the care plan being approved by the CWC/JJB.

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