Karnataka - Mangalore   

Police in a quandary after finding run-away child

MANGALORE: The district has no Child Welfare Committee (CWC) since December last, when it was arbitrarily dissolved by the Department of Women and Child Welfare. .On Monday, the Mangalore South police picked up a boy aged ten, hailing from Belgaum, found wandering near the Central Railway Station here.

Since there was no CWC to turn to, the police kept the boy in the station and tried to trace his parents with the help of the Belgaum police. “This was against the law, which says that the child should be immediately produced before a CWC or taken to a Government-run child reception centre,” said Nina Nayak, Chairperson of the Karnataka Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Although the Belgaum police managed to find the boy’s father, they came to know that he had no rights over the child. Belgaum CWC had placed the boy in a child care centre from where he ran away a month ago. “The boy did not want to stay with the father because he was abusive and had also married again,” Anand, president of the Belgaum CWC, told The Hindu. On the advise of Mr. Anand, the police took boy to the observation home in Bondel. However, the Superintendent of the centre refused to keep the boy stating that the child had not committed any offence.

After unsuccessfully attempting at placing him at a children’s care home in Nittur, Udupi, they finally lodged the at a home for children in Kalyanpura. Deputy Director of the department was not available.

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