Affairs in child care centres appalling, children running away, kidnapped: HC seeks govt reply
New Delhi: Noting that children are often found running away or kidnapped from child care centres in the Capital with no concrete action being taken by the State, the Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi government and the Union Minister of Women and Child Development to file an affidavit on steps taken to ensure such incidents do not occur.
A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad of the high court noted that the affairs at Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust and other child care centres here were "appaling" and appointed Senior Advocate Rebecca Mammen John as Amicus Curiae to assist the court in the matter — posting the matter next for January 11.
The high court was hearing a plea seeking a magisterial enquiry into an incident where five minor girls had run away from a children's home in Bakhtawarpur this March and other similar incidents reported recently.
The court said, "...the affairs in the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Bhakhtawarpur, Delhi and other Child Care Centres are appalling and it transpires that children/inmates in the centres run away or are being kidnapped at regular intervals and no concrete action is being taken by the State."
Significantly, in its December 9 order, the court also noted that the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) had written to the Department of Women and Child Development seeking data on such incidents of children running away or being kidnapped in the last one year but was yet to receive a response.
Advocate RHA Sikander, appearing for the child rights body informed that court that the DCPCR had written to the government department on December 1 this year seeking data on such cases from December 1, 2020 to October 31 this year.
The court had earlier expressed interest in issuing directions for the better functioning of child care centres in light of escapes and kidnappings - on the petition, which had initially sought initiation of criminal proceedings against the staffers for negligence.
In the Bakhtawarpur case, the petition had sought the arrest of the accused, who had allegedly kidnapped one of the minor girls, detained her illegally and sexually assaulted her - and went on to convert her religion from Hinduism to Islam and "marrying her".
In a status report filed by the Delhi Police, the Bakhtawarpur child care home was described to be in a bad condition and as a place from where anyone can easily run away. It said given the 63 girls living there, no adequate security arrangements had been made and that there was a lack of female security guards.
While the police said that girls have run away from the home on 13 different occasions, they added that no negligence was found on the part of the staffers there — in the instant case where five girls ran away this March.
