NEW DELHI: With over 1,300 child care institutions, most of them in Kerala , still out of the registration framework set out under the Juvenile Justice Act, the ministry of women and child development has stepped up action sending out letters to states asking them to verify all their homes and cancel those that fail to register.

Telangana has so far cancelled 42 child care institutions and more reports are pouring into the WCD of the action taken. Recognising that simply registering or cancelling homes was not enough, WCD minister Maneka Gandhi , who has expressed deep concern over these cases, has also decided to write to MPs and MLAs asking them to visit homes in their constituencies. It is learnt from sources that the previous three letters have failed to evoke a response from the legislators.

In order to bolster the monitoring mechanism the government has also asked state commissions to fill up vacancies in Child Welfare Committees which hold magisterial powers. Parliament was informed last week that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has reported that it has registered 43 complaints regarding child abuse and neglect of children in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) during the last three years up to June this year.

Out of the 43 complaints, 38 have been closed and the remaining five cases are still pending. Gandhi also feels that there was need to consolidate the Child Care Institutions more systematically to prevent adding more and more homes and instead create more centralised facilities. The minister has asked the ministry to put in place a scheme in consultation with states where centralised facilities for children can be created in states and which are run only by state authorities.

The other homes should be only used as temporary shelters for keeping the child before he or she is rehabilitated, put in the adoption system or sent to the centralised facility for long term stay. The minister sees this type of a scheme as a measure to check possibility of “abuse and misuse by NGOs who are running their own homes with government grants.” The government wants to bring in more accountability in the CCI management system.

