[1]The district wing of the Child Welfare Committee is set to increase the number of days of adalat from one to two in a week, owing to the rising number of child abuse cases here.
According to CWC officials, the committee receives a minimum of 35 cases every day — a number that is very high when compared to the other districts.
The statistics also says Kochi has witnessed a drastic rise in the number of cases when compared to previous years. “We have been receiving a lot of complaints and cases of late.
We are now forced to conduct the CWC adalats on two days as we fail to resolve everything in one single day,” said Padmaja Nair, chairperson of Ernakulam CWC.
Padmaja Nair also feels the number of cases reported at CWC is much less than the actual figures.
“I don’t think even 10 per cent of the actual cases are reported at CWC. If we receive 35 cases a day, it means over 350 cases are occurring in the district,” she added.
The CWC has been holding adalats on every Saturday from 2 pm to 8 pm, but the committee now plans to hold it on all Saturdays and Sundays.
The CWC officials say they get the most number of complaints in connection with child labour and sexual abuse.
“There are a lot of kids who work in hotels and houses here in Kochi.
We were able to rescue a few, but a lot has to be done to save all the kids,” she said.
Due to the rising number of cases and huge workload, the CWC is also not able to collect a comprehensive statistics of the cases. Once the committee starts conducting adalats twice a week, it plans to categorically classify the cases.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/studenjpgcropdisplayjpg-791