Kerala: Welfare committee to hear case where a woman gave up her children to the CWC

The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Kerala will hold a hearing of the case where a woman handed over four of her six children to child welfare due to poverty on December 18. "Currently she and her children are housed in the government-run care home. We will hear her on December 18 and if she is medically fit, then we will decide on when she can join duty," N Sunanda, Child Welfare Committee chairperson told ANI. 

Sunanda said that the committee will ascertain whether the woman has got out of the trauma that the poor living condition had inflicted upon her.

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The woman had written a letter to the Welfare Committee where she had requested to rehabilitate her children because of poverty. She, with her alcoholic husband, lived in a makeshift house near a railway track at Kaithamukku, Thiruvananthapuram. As per ANI, the CWC took the custody of four elder children - two boys and two girls. The mother and two other younger siblings were later shifted to a state-run shelter home. 

It was also reported that the children had to eat mud out of hunger. The CWC then visited the house on December 2 and took the custody of four children. 

K Sreekumar, mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has already announced that the woman will be provided with a job and accommodation. 

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Meanwhile, the Kerala Government has accepted the resignation of Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) general secretary SP Deepak. Once the issue came before the CWC, Deepak had alleged that the elder child was eating mud out of hunger which received backlash from his own party and the Opposition used it as a political weapon.

The KSCCW had termed the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights report on the incident correct. The panel also found that the reports of children eating sand to escape hunger arose due to a misunderstanding and that only the child rights panel and other related institutions could talk about matters related to children.

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(With inputs from ANI)