15-20 Lakh Street Children In Country, Estimates NCPCR; Supreme Court Directs States To Immediately Start Identification Process

The Supreme Court on Monday directed all the District Magistrates/ Collectors of all the state governments and UTs to take steps in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situations prepared by NCPCR in 2020.The Bench is currently hearing an application filed by the Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agrawal seeking directions in respect of children who are adversely affected due to Covid pandemic by losing either one or both the parents, and the increased incidents of child trafficking especially of the girl child. The Bench had on 31.10.2021 directed the state governments/Union Territories to file a status report on the rehabilitation of Children in Street Situations in accordance with the SOP, within a period of two weeks.In the proceedings on Monday, Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agrawal brought to the notice of the Court a study conducted by NGO 'Save the Children' mapping about 2 lakh children in the cities of Lucknow, Kanpur, Chandoli and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Pune and Nasik in Maharashtra, Kolkata and Howrah in West Bengal and Delhi, whose rights to protection, education, health, shelter, sanitation have not been addressed so far. The Amicus also pointed out that "hardly any steps have been taken" to ensure these children get their rights. The Bench expressed surprise that 2 lakh children have been mapped from merely 10 cities. The Bench also noted that as had been brought to the Court's notice by the Amicus, there are about 70,000 children in the streets in Delhi alone. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for NCPCR submitted that in his estimate, the number might be to the tune of 15-20 lakhs across the entire country. ASG Nataraj further submitted that the figure of 2 lakhs has been estimated only from 4 states whereas other states are yet to identify and upload the information on the portal. He requested the Court to issue directions that a two-stage exercise be undertaken- one from the 4 states to ensure that the children are rescued and rehabilitated and the other from the rest of the states to ensure tracking, rescue and rehabilitation. ASG Nataraj further pointed out that many states do not cooperate in the meetings with NCPCR officials and urged the Court to issue a direction to the state governments/ UTs to "properly attend meetings and sensitise its officers."Amicus Gaurav Agrawal also informed the Court that the NCPCR had developed a new link called "CISS" on the Bal Swaraj Portal for the purpose of receiving information on children from all the state governments to track rescue and rehabilitation. Upon hearing the Amicus and ASG Nataraj, the Bench directed that all the District Magistrates/Collectors in all the state governments/UTs undertake steps in accordance with SOP 2.0 that has been formulated by the NCPCR. The Bench also directed the Secretary, Women and Child Welfare Departments of each state government/ UT be made the nodal officer to ensure that all DMs and Collectors take prompt action for the implementation of SOP 2.0 of NCPCR. The Bench directed that :"The process has to start by immediate action taken by authorities for identification of children in street situations and thereafter provide the information to NCPCR for the later stages as well. The state governments/UTs are directed to promptly attend meetings that are held by NCPCR and offer their suggestions and voicing their concerns, if there are any, in the implementation of SOP 2.0."The matter is to be next heard on 13.12.2021. The Court also directed the Registry to register a new suo motu case "In re: Children in Street Situations" to deal with the issue of street children.Case title: In Re: Contagion of COVID -19 Virus In Children Protection Homes.Click Here To Read/Download The Order

15-20 Lakh Street Children In Country, Estimates NCPCR; Supreme Court Directs States To Immediately Start Identification Process

Sneha Rao

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