Child rights body upset over shutting of 8 shelter homes

Jodhpur: After high court, Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (RSCPCR) chairperson Sangeeta Beniwal has expressed her displeasure over the decision to shut down eight juvenile shelter homes for boys for the age group of 8 to 18 years and relocating them to centres run by the NGOs.

Beniwal, while expressing surprise over the decision, said she would take up the matter with the government on Monday.

“The decision to shut these eight homes was unwarranted and requires re-consideration as the NGOs could not be as sensitive as the government centres,” she said, adding that she would take up the matter with the chief minister.

The department of women and child development had issued an order on October 4 to shut eight juvenile shelter homes in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Kota, Bharatpur, Rajsamand, Tonk and Sikar and directed to shift the juveniles requiring protection to the centres run by NGOs registered with the department.

The high court had also expressed its displeasure over the decision during a hearing on October 14 stating that why the step was taken without bringing it to the notice of the court. A petition is pending for hearing in the court on the matter.

“This court is apprised that the state government has issued orders abolishing the children homes in some districts and directing that the children, who are being kept in these homes, shall be sent to the homes run by NGOs. It is indeed a matter of surprise that such a drastic decision has been taken without apprising this court and that too without even elaborating as to in which particular home the children shall be relocated. This court is further apprised that for the present, the decision has been kept in abeyance,” the order read.

As per an estimate, around 500 children and juveniles have been reunited with their family members apart from connecting many of them with education and other economic schemes by liberating them from evils like child labour and begging.