The non-implementation of the two crucial Central enactments of 2000 and 2005 by the states and Union Territories and oversighting of the Supreme Court directions for enforcing them has been cited as the main cause for growing incidence of sexual abuse of children in remand homes run by private agencies and NGOs in a report by a court commissioner.
The court commission, headed by senior lawyer Anil Malhotra, was appointed by the Punjab and Haryana high court to probe the numerous complaints of sexual abuse of minors in Rohtak’s Apna Ghar children home. The panel found that the Supreme Court’s orders for implementation of the provisions of the Commission for Protection of Child Right Act (CPCRA), 2005 and Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 were not implemented by the majority of the states.
CPCRA provides for establishing of state commissions for monitoring of the children homes as per the standards laid down in the UN Convention on Right of Child, 1992, adopted by India in 2003 and the JJ Act provides for setting up of district committees and district boards in every states to oversee the functioning of the remand homes.
Although Mr Malhotra’s panel was asked to probe the alleged abuse of children in Apna Ghar — now closed by the Haryana government with all the inmates shifted to other remand homes — the panel has taken a broader view to include all the states of the region, including Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. It found that all of them had failed to implement both the Central legislations in the letter and spirit. The situation was no better in other states, Mr Malhotra said, while citing the top court’s various directions issue during the past two years.