Make older children in care homes legally free for adoption, says Irani

Make older children in care homes legally free for adoption, says Irani

Subject :Schemes

Concept :

• Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani asked the child welfare committees on Sunday to visit child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption as soon as possible.
• Many children living in child-care homes are not legally free for adoption.
• According to official figures, there are around 66,000 children residing child-care homes across the country and less than 3,000 of them are legally free for adoption.
• She also asked the child-care homes to look into the infrastructure gaps in their areas and requested the apex child rights body — National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) –– to review these gaps and present them to the ministry so that they can be brought up in the upcoming budget.

Child Welfare Committee

• It is a quasi-judicial agency and is the final authority on children in need of care and protection. It is an autonomous body.
• The Child Welfare Committee functions as a bench guided by the powers that are conferred in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
• Anyone connected to the child is allowed to file a petition to the Magistrate of that District, who considers and passes appropriate orders.
• It is mandatory to form one or more Child Welfare Committees in every district for exercising power and to discharge the duties conferred in relation to children in need of care and protection.
• This committee consists of a Chairperson and other four members who according to the State Government are fit to be appointed, at least one of whom should be a woman and the other should preferably be an expert on matters that are concerning the children.

Power and function as mentioned in Section 27 of the Juvenile Justice, Act 2015:

• The Committee has the full authority of disposing of cases for the care, protection and treatment of the children.
• The Committee can also dispose of cases that are for the development, rehabilitation and protection of children that are in need, and also to provide for the basic need and protection that is needed by the children.
• When a Committee is constituted for any particular area, then it has the power to exclusively deal with all proceedings that are being held under the provisions of this Act that are related to children in terms of need of care and protection.
• While exercising the given powers curtailed under this Act, the Committee is barred from performing any act which would go against anything contained in any other law that is in force at that time.
• CWCs are designated by law as final district-level authorities for care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of “children in need of care and protection” – or CNCP

POCSO Act mandates the police to inform CWC

• In case of sexual abuse, the Juvenile Justice Act defines CNCP as any child “who has been or is being or is likely to be abused, tortured or exploited for the purpose of sexual abuse or illegal acts”.
• Rules under POCSO Act make it mandatory that if the police have reasons to believe that the child is without a home or paternal support, or is in any institution or when a perpetrator is in the same house, among others, the victim has to be produced before CWC.

Mission Vatsalya Scheme

• It is a roadmap to achieve development and child protection priorities aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It lays emphasis on child rights, advocacy and awareness along with strengthening of the juvenile justice care and protection system with the motto to ‘leave no child behind’.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 provisions and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 form the basic framework for implementation of the Mission. Funds under the Mission Vatsalya Scheme are released according to the requirements and demands made by the States/UTs.
• The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in partnership with State Governments and UT Administrations to support the States and UTs in universalizing access and improving quality of services across the country.
• The fund sharing pattern is in the ratio of 60:40 between Centre and State & Union Territories with Legislature respectively. The fund sharing pattern between Centre and State is in the ratio of 90:10 for the North-Eastern States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and two Himalayan States viz. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and UT of Jammu and Kashmir. For Union Territories without Legislature, it is 100% central share.
• Mission Vatsalya scheme supports the children through Non-Institutional Care under Private Aided Sponsorship wherein interested sponsors (individuals/ institutions/ company/ banks/ industrial units/ trusts etc.) can provide assistance to children in difficult circumstances. The District Magistrates take measures to encourage individuals or Public/ Private Sector Organisations to sponsor a child or a group of children or an Institution. Such arrangements are subject to stipulations as per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and Rules thereof.