More than 250 cases of violation of child rights came to the grievance redressal camp organised by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in Chaibasa district on Saturday.
While a variety of cases came to the camp, a majority of cases were related to orphans or children of single parents, which proved to be a major reason of concern for the NCPCR bench.
Yashwant Jain, member of NCPCR, who was present at the camp said, “We got around 35 cases where the children were either orphans or had just one parent, thus their healthy upbringing does not seem possible. These cases were heartbreaking. While most children were orphaned, we got some case where either the mother or the father was alive but they were not economically sound enough to take care of their children.”
Taking immediate decision on these issues, Jain directed the district administration to produce all these children at the Child Welfare Committee immediately so they can be shifted in shelter homes.
“At present the shelter homes have enough space to accommodate these children but if we get to know that the shelter homes are not enough we will recommend the State government to either increase the capacity of existing shelter homes or construct new ones,” Jain said.
A number of children also came forward at the camp requesting the commission to help them study further. “Many of them were girls who either had to drop out of school due to lack of money or any other reason. There was one case where the girl said that she did not get a cycle from the government as a result of which she cannot travel to school every day and had to drop out,” the NCPCR member said. The commission directed the district administration to provide cycle to the girl immediately.
“The good thing is that these children are aware of their rights which is why they are themselves coming forward with their complaints,” Jain said.
Jain informed that he would follow up those cases which could not be heard in the camp, from Delhi.
The camp is a part of a series of camps being organized by NCPCR in all the aspirational districts across the Country. In Ranchi, out of 12 aspirational districts, camps have been organised at four including Palamu, Hazaribag, Giridih and Chaibasa.
Sanjay Mishra, treasurer of South Asia Coordinating Group on Action against Violence against Children (SACG) and president of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, who is coordinating with NCPCR and district administrations said, “We will be covering all the 12 districts by September. The next bench would be in Ranchi on August 23 and then in Dumka on August 30.”