Justice Deepak Gupta raises issue of child rights violation in shelter homes

Supreme Court Justice Deepak Gupta, on Saturday, raised the issue of increasing violation of child rights in shelter homes across India and said that the focus should be on alternate care provided in the institutions.

Speaking at an event organized by UNICEF, Justice Gupta said, "We have a plethora of laws for the betterment of children. Various schemes have been initiated by the government but we cannot say that everything is working perfectly on the ground level. There are rampant violations of child rights."

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Suggesting the solution to the issue, he said that instead of sending children to shelter homes, alternative care should be provided to the child. He highlighted that every child has the right to be raised in a suitable environment. He said that the aim should be to reduce institutional care and provide alternate care to children.

Adding that shelter homes should be properly monitored, he said: "There are institutions that are poorly run and exploit children. We heard a case where the children would be sent out for begging by the institutions run on government funding."

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Justice Gupta suggested that the shelter homes should be managed by a computerized system. He said that Juvenile Justice Committees should take the issue seriously and the Ministry of Women and Child Development should ensure that children are given the protection they deserve.

3.18 Lakh children missing since 2014

A total of 3.18 lakh children, including 52,272 in Madhya Pradesh, have gone missing in the country since 2014, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said on Friday. In response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Irani presented the data according to which Madhya Pradesh was followed by West Bengal with 47,744 missing children and Gujarat (43,658).

READ | 3.18 Lakh Children Missing Since 2014: Smriti Irani

"A mechanism has been developed to share the unmatched images of missing children, recovered children and children under institutional and non-institutional care with circumstances marked as 'missing' across the country of TrackChild with Delhi Police on regular basis through common Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) server area from 16th May 2018 onwards," Irani said.

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(With Inputs from agencies)