‘The reform that’s supposed to happen in these homes isn’t taking place’
CHENNAI: In July of 2016, 33 boys ran away from the Government Observation Home for Boys and Girls in Kilpauk here.
While in the early investigation stages some sort of trafficking racket was assumed, it simply turned out that the boys tried to escape because of the poor conditions in the home.
More recently, despite a call by the Department of Social Defence, no NGOs volunteered to help rehabilitate children in conflict with the law in the city.
The reasons for both these incidents are more or less the same. “We have a strong law, but we never cared to train our staff on how to implement it,” says child rights activist Andrew Sesuraj.
Stress on registering children’s homes
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AAA Recently, five children were rescued from an unregistered children’s home in Kadachanendal and an FIR was registered against the person running the home. Similarly, 16 children were rescued from an unregistered children’s home in Tirumangalam in April last during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown.
Following these incidents, Child Welfare Committee (CWC) officials have stressed the need to register all children’s homes in the district to ensure protection of children and their rights.
CWC Chairperson V.M. Vijaya Saravanan says the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, mandates that all children’s homes must be registered. While the District Child Protection Unit helps in registration of child care institutions (CCIs) with the Department of Social Defence, it is the CWC which can take the decision regarding admission of children to the CCIs.