The Sunday Guardian: New Delhi: Sunday, August 13, 2017.
The
rehabilitation of trafficked children is proving to be a major challenge for
Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Child Care Institutes (CCIs) and
non-governmental organisations working for child welfare and protection across
the country. Inadequate resources and techniques, lack of trained personnel
including quality counsellors, and ways to mitigate final compensation to the
victims of child trafficking are some of the major hurdles that the
rehabilitation process faces.
A spurt of
over 25% in cases of child trafficking in India since 2015 has put the total
number of trafficked children and women in 2016 at 20,000. This has raised
questions on the functioning of CCIs and CWCs. CWCs are the district level
bodies established by the Central government under the Juvenile Justice Act,
and are the sole and final authority for the treatment and rehabilitation of
children in need of care and protection. CCIs come under the state governments.
SUPERVISION-NEEDED
The law makes
it mandatory for each CWC to inspect the CCIs at least once every month.
However, according to Rishi Kant, president of NGO Shakti Vahini, no such
monitoring happens. “Inside Delhi’s Naari Niketan, the Delhi Commission for
Women chief had to step in to stop the mistreatment of inmates. So what are the
regular inspection units doing? There is no system of checks and balances even
inside the shelters,” he said.
Meenakshi
Ganguly of HAQ, Centre for Child Rights, reiterated the sentiment, saying that
while laws regarding inspection are in place, they are not followed in many
states.
However,
realising the need to ensure effective supervision of CCIs, the Delhi
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has passed an order asking
the members to conduct regular inspection of CCIs, parks and other child
related institutions, Ramesh Negi, chairperson of DCPCR told The Sunday
Guardian.
Secondly,
arrangements for the final rehabilitation of the children (once parents or
guardians of the child are identified and verified) by CWCs are ineffective.
Junaid Khan, programme director, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, told this newspaper
that the NGOs that step in to rehabilitate the trafficked child and the CWC are
divided on bearing the cost to escort the children back home. “There are cases
when parents are not able to come to the city where the child is sheltered. In
such cases, there is no clarity as to who will bear the cost of transportation.
While the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) has made
arrangements asking a battalion of armed constables to accompany the child,
lacunae still exist,” he told this newspaper. Some NGOs have observed that a
lot of the children are re-trafficked from their homes.
Third, most
of the government-run CCIs have a capacity of 100 people, but keep around 300
children who have access to only limited resources. Rishi Kant argued that the
government-run protection homes cannot deny taking children, and that is why
the police always end up sending them there, irrespective of the space there is
to accommodate children.
However, Rita
Singh, member of DCPCR, said, “Hundreds of trafficked children are recovered
every day. Where else do you expect us to send them off? There are only three
government-run CCIs for girl children in Delhi—Nirmal Chaya, Sanskar Ashram and
Kilkari. Our priority is to give these children immediate shelter with the
limited resources we have.”
LACK OF
TRAUMA COUNSELLORS
The Juvenile
Justice Act mandates that a psychologist/counsellor be assigned to look after
the trafficked children for their social and mental reintegration. However,
most of the times, either the CCIs do not have any qualified counsellors, or it
is the police that dons the hat of the counsellor. This, NGOs say, is
unacceptable since the practice is not only illegal, but the police also does
not know how to counsel a child.
“The problem
is that the state or the Central government doesn’t provide funding to the
Child Care Institutions. The CCIs can apply for a grant under ICPS (Integrated
Child Protection scheme), but a qualified counsellor cannot be hired from the
amount they receive,” Junaid Khan said.
However, Khan
added that the Department of Women and Child Development is taking help from
NGOs like Sun Chetan and Sarthak, to provide counselling support to CCIs.
NO VICTIM
COMPENSATION
Under the
provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the revised Rehabilitation of Bonded
Labour scheme, victims of child trafficking are entitled to a compensation of
Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. The compensation, which, was a meagre Rs 20,000 until
2016, has been increased under the Central Sector Scheme for the Rehabilitation
of Bonded Labour.
“Under the
revised scheme, a state’s Labour Department would be as much involved as the
Centre. Routing of proposals and release of funds received from the district
administration will happen through the state machinery,” Khan said. “But
instances of victims actually receiving the compensation are low. The districts
do not have enough funds. We are planning to file an RTI to know how much funds
districts have and how much of it has been used for victim compensation.”
The cases
where a child manages to get his dues are the ones where his/her employer is
involved. Under the Minimum Wages Act, the CWCs send an order to the child’s
employer, who has to pay the dues and an additional fine. The amount is
deposited in the child’s bank account opened by the CWCs, and can be accessed
by the child when he turns 18.
“The process
is a mess. The cheques that reach the Child Labour Department under the Bonded
Labour Scheme keep piling up, without being cleared. Certain cases go to the
Supreme Court, which has a separate pool of funds. The compensation is
successfully given in such cases, but not everybody has the time or the
resources to go to court,” said Sushma Vij, chairperson of Child Welfare
Committee, Mayur Vihar.
Many a time,
the victims do not know that they are entitled to any compensation. “Uneducated
victims and parents are unaware. Since the child cannot contract the
compensation before the age of 18, he and his parents give up in the middle of
the whole process. More often than not, implementation agencies are not
proactive,” said Supreme Court lawyer Vijay Dalmia.
INITIATIVES
AND ORDERS
Yet, there is
a silver lining. The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) has recently released a handbook on skill development and counselling
of staff of child care institutes.
Likewise, the
DCPCR, which suo motu monitors cases of child trafficking, has asked the
authorities to identify vulnerable areas that have reported the maximum cases
of missing or trafficked children.
“We are
planning to involve district magistrates, SDMs, and senior officers of the
Delhi Police to identify these areas,” Ramesh Negi said.
Recently, the
Delhi High Court has issued an order to the state government and to the
Department of Women and Child Development, enquiring about the gap in the
services being provided to children in CCIs, mostly due to lack of quality
staff.
According to
Khan, the District Child Protection Units (DCPUs), which are monitored by CWCs,
are conducting a survey to gauge the gap between the services being provided to
children.