Bhubaneswar: The Child Care Institutions (CCIs) as well as the authorities in the state are in the line of fire following the shocker at the shelter home in Dhenkanal. A ground study of nine CCIs in the Capital, of which four were found closed, laid bare massive violation of norms by these institutions right under the nose of the authorities.
The registered CCIs located in the Capital City have been brazenly violating the guidelines under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015. Interestingly, most of them have either shifted from their original place or have closed down long ago. And it seems the authorities have no clue about them. More so, the records uploaded on the Webpage of the Women and Child Development Department are yet to be revised or updated.
The closed down or shifted CCIs in the city include Grace Children Home in IRC Village; Manna Wisdom School by the White Cross Ministries in Niladri Vihar; Children Home run by Sahid Laxman Yubak Sangha at Maruti Residency in Raghunathpur; and Rotary Community Service Center (ASHA) in Baramunda BDA.
The closure of the CCIs and the non-mentioning of the same on the Webpage is an indication of another possible major lapse by the authorities. The District Inspection Committee and CWC that have been entrusted with periodic inspections of the registered CCIs have not paid a visit to the same for years. During the visit it was also found that some of them have been registered despite not having extra area inside the premises for outside recreational activities.
In a violation of the norms, some inmates in one of the CCIs have been staying in the institution despite crossing the age limit of 18 years. Some inmates from other districts of the state are still staying in the in the institutions here. According to norms, the children should stay in the CCIs of their respective districts only.
The model rules under the JJ Act make it mandatory for the CCIs to have complaints or a suggestion boxes kept at a place in the institution that is easily accessible to all the inmates. The boxes should also be kept out of the surveillance limits of the CCTVs installed in the institutions.
However, no CCI has a complaint or suggestion box barring one or two. Similarly, none of the institutions mention emergency numbers like 100 (police control room), 101 (fire station) along with the Child Line number (1098) on the information boards.
The CCIs have been strictly instructed to keep fire extinguishers or other firefighting equipment in the kitchen and other prominent areas inside the institutions. However, most of them continue to violate the norms pushing the inmates’ life into risk.
The staff members of the CCIs have not been imparted with any training on child rights issues or the JJ Act by the CWC or any government organisation. So, many are unaware of the instructions and model rules and other provisions. An ex-CWC member, while speaking to Orissa POST, lamented that even the staff of the District Child Welfare Committees have no formal training on the rules and regulations under the JJ Act or child rights.
The former member also revealed that due to proper co-ordination and overriding powers and responsibilities, the monitoring organisations lock their horns many times. The institutions like State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, District Inspection Committee (DIC), District Child Welfare Committees and CWCs lack proper co-ordination among them.
The authorities in the CCIs, however, claimed that they have not received any government help yet to run the institutions properly despite applying for grants-in-aid for more than a couple of years. According to sources, only three CCIs are getting grants from the state government.
The lapses in the implementation of the guidelines enumerated in the JJ Act have clearly indicated towards the lackadaisical approach by the monitoring agencies. The District Inspection Committee, which is ordained under the Sub-Section 9 of the Section 41, must inspect any institution wherein distressed children are staying, even if that is not a registered one. The monitoring agencies are busy saving their skin and say that only unregistered CCIs in remote areas are the hotbed of all the irregularities.
The interplay of apathy by monitoring agencies and CCIs’ indifference to follow the guidelines enumerated in the JJ Act has put the future of children in need of care at stake.
When contacted, principal secretary, Government of Odisha, said, “We will look into the matter regarding the revision of the list of CCIs uploaded on the webpage and will check the irregularities in the CCIs after getting the information about it.”
