NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The women and child development department, which has been implementing the Goa Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children), Rules 2013 in the state has found that 45 of the 60 registered child care institutions in the state have not constituted children’s committees.
According to the law, all the child care institutions are required to set up children’s committees. A children’s committee is particularly important because it is the only forum where children can raise their concerns and bring them on record to demand action.
The rule says that officer in charge of every institution for juveniles or children shall facilitate the setting up of children’s committees for three different age groups of children – 6-10 years, 11-15 years and 16-18 years – and these committees shall be constituted solely by children.
Speaking to this daily, an official source from the department said that not setting up the committees is violation of Section 56 of the Goa Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Rules 2013. “As things stand now, there is no provision to penalise organisations for not constituting the children’s committees. We have been only issuing notices and reminders to these institutions to form the committees but they often seek more time for constituting them,” said the official.
The main purpose of a children’s committee
is to participate in the improvement of the conditions of the institution, review the standard of care being followed, prepare daily routine and diet scale, develop educational, vocational and recreation plans and report abuse and exploitation by peers and caregivers. The officer in charge shall ensure that the children’s committees meet every month and maintain a register and produce it before the managing committee.
According to the department figures, there are hundreds of child care institutions, which are set up under different laws such as the Societies Registration Act and the Charitable and Religious Trust Act. It is mandatory under law that child care institutions set up under such laws must be registered under the Juvenile Justice Act. However, many such institutions are not registered in this manner. In effect, this means that there is no government record of the number of children existing there. These facilities escape inspection and there is no monitoring of the conditions in which the children live there. Needless to say, the children there are extremely vulnerable.
The juvenile justice rules mandate that inspection committees should visit and oversee the conditions in the institutions, look into the functioning of the management committee and children’s committees set up under Rules 55 and 56 of these Rules, give appropriate directions and look out for, among other things, any incidence of violation of child rights at least once every three months.
Meanwhile, the government has approved to depute a committee, which consists of a minimum of four members with representation from the Institute of Human Behaviour, the Goa State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, SCAN NGO and an assistant professor of V M Salgaocar College of Law, to assist the Juvenile Justice Boards of both the districts to ascertain the gravity of offence and recommend whether the case has to be transferred to Children’s Court or the same has to be dealt by the Juvenile Justice Board.
