Taking cognisance of the recent incident of torture of a minor boy at a childcare home at Pandav Nagar in East Delhi, the Delhi Government is going to redraft the ‘child protection policy guidelines’ which would strictly be followed by all childcare homes that provide shelter to the children below 18 years. These guidelines are being framed under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000. The proposed guidelines are divided into two categories: Children in need of protection care and other is children conflict with law in (Juvenile homes).

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is the primary legal framework for juvenile justice in India. The act provides a framework for the protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children in the purview of the juvenile justice system.

According to the senior Government official, once these childcare homes get the license under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to run their institution, they take the funds and misuse it and not even children are treated well as they are accused, harassed, tortured and beaten up by the authorities.

“The objective behind forming these policies for the protection of children in childcare centre is that in the past few months we have received many complaints about various childcare homes where children being harnessed, accused therefore we are reviewing every aspect to provide safe environment to the children in the shelter homes by framing more stringent guidelines,” said the Government official.

Administration shifted 43 children from the Pandav Nagar childcare to a shelter run by an NGO on the orders of Child Welfare Committee (CWC)  at Mayur Vihar, Phase-1, informed the official.

 “To look after the monitoring mechanism all the childcare homes, government is setting up two committees. The first one is the management committee which will look after the working of administrating and staff. The other one is ‘children grievance committee’ which will focus on problems of the children,” said the government official. The Childline  number 1098 will be available to all the Childcare homes.

Besides, module training will be provided to the administration and staff in dealing with children. Children will also be sensitised according to their age to know their rights. Children will be sensitised as per their mental capabilities. Children between 3 and 7 age group will be taught about ‘good touch and bad tough’. The level of training will be increased according to the age of the child and will be taught about their rights, the official added.