Skip to main content

Integrated Child Protection Scheme fails to take off, children falling prey to petty crimes remain neglected

A recent workshop, held under the auspices of the Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch (DHRM), an Ahmedabad-based NGO working on child rights issues, has found that the Gujarat government is showing "gross indifference" towards the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), a Government of India scheme floated in 2009 for the vulnerable sections of children, who, finding themselves in certain special conditions, are victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment and separation from family.
Referring to a Government of Gujarat presentation before the Union ministry of woman and child, DHRM workshop stated that the state government could not even spend the pittance, Rs 6.41 crore, sanctioned to it for the purpose. Whatever grants were demanded were for staff. As for the ICPS' actual functioning, which would require activation of different schemes, these have remained on paper. Analyzing different heads under which the state government should implement ICPS, which operates under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, amended in 2006, the workshop found that a state support project unit had been set up to create ICPS structures all over the state. However, “while the government demanded funds for setting up the unit, it did not demand any funds to create awareness which is the necessary part of the unit's work. The result was, out of Rs 19 lakh sanctioned, Rs 12 lakh remained untilised last year”.
Further, while as many as 26 district support units have been set up, there is no inkling towards ensuring that these function in their true letter and spirit. Thus, of the 26 units, only three are functioning Vadodara, Kheda and Narmada districts. As for the rest, they are non-functional because of lack of staff. As a result, out of Rs 2.09 crore sanctioned, a whopping Rs 1.19 crore remained unutilised. “There was bi demand for grants from the Government of India for capacity building, advocacy and awareness”, the workshop said.
The situation was found to be very similar with regard to other programmes under ICPS. Thus, while a state adoption resource agency was set up, grants were demanded for staff, but nothing for creating awareness campaign. The result was, out of Rs 5.38 lakh grant, Rs 3.48 lakh remained unutilized. Then, as against Rs 45.8 lakh for specialised adoption agency, Rs 23.78 lakh, again meant for things other than staff salaries, remained untilised.
Further, juvenile boards were set up in all the 26 districts, but no meetings of the boards have so far been held in districts. Worse, in rest of the districts, not more than one meeting has been held. The result is, of the Rs 16 lakh sanctioned for proper functioning of these boards, the government could spend merely 0.78 lakh. The workshop said that as many as 3,930 cases are pending with these district boards. “How it is going to dispose of the rest is a big question”, the workshop wondered. Then, out of Rs 22 lakh sanctioned for child welfare committees, just about Rs 3.96 lakh were utilised, as the committees did not function, with 323 cases remaining pending.
Coming to the juvenile homes, the workshop found that most of them remain non-functional. “The government has converted each of these homes into children homes. However, it is not clear where to keep children from the observation homes. This is because the government just forgot to demand from the Government of India grants for starting new observation homes”, the workshop said, underscoring, “Our study found that Kutch-Saurashtra's seven out of eight district observation homes were converted into children homes. The result is, children from all the districts are brought to Rajkot, where alone an observation home functions.”
“This has resulted in a strange predicament”, the workshop said. “A teenager who was caught for thieving a motorbike in Gandhidham in Kutch district is kept in Rajkot, which is hundreds of kilometres away, to remain in the observation home. However, at the time of hearing, the boy is transported all the way to Gandhidham, and again brought back to Rajkot and kept in confinement there. Ordinarily he should have got bail in the matter at Gandhidham itself. But this is not done”, the workshop said.
Participating in the workshop, senior sociologist Gaurang Jahi said, “It has generally been found that the teenagers who are involved in different types of crimes come from vulnerable sections of population – Dalits, tribals, OBCs and backward sections of Muslims. There is a need to find out why this is so. Many of these vulnerable sections, mainly tribals, come to Ahmedabad with their parents to work in construction and other hazardous jobs. Then there are young girls who are pushed into prostitution. There is no policy to take care of their health, educational, security and psychological needs.”

Comments

TRENDING

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.