Court directs inspection of children’s homes in Coimbatore, Kancheepuram

Recording the submission of Amicus curie T Mohan that an inspection ought to be undertaken at the all the children’s homes in the state, the division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee before whom a batch of HCP cases relating to missing children is pending offered a slew of directions while setting aside the government contention that a mere three homes in the State were unrecognised.

The bench then directed the district legal services authority aided by the Anti-trafficking Police Unit of the two districts to hold the inspection at the homes in Coimbatore and Kancheepuram and submit a report.

Change India, which was suo motu impleaded in the case during the previous hearing as a respondent to offer inputs regarding Juvenile Justice Act and Children homes submitted that at both the state and district levels Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) do not have dedicated exclusive personnel but designated staff just for official records and used for other purpose.

While those police personnel sent for training on women and children issues are those at the lower cadre either under punishment posting or those who are not assigned specific jobs, Change India represented by its director A Narayanan submitted that in most of the district level crime meetings, District Child Protection Officers (DCPOS), Probation officers, Special Juvenile Police Units (SJPU) are not invited and cases related to children in JJD, CWC, POCSO Act, trafficking are not reviewed and they don’t get into the agenda.

The plea, as a remedy to this glaring ill, suggested that at the state level, AHTU should be headed by an IPS officer so that he/she is able to coordinate with SP/Commissioners in the district headquarters and the AHTU/SJPU at the district level so that the performance will be more effective and outcome oriented.

Also, dealing in detail with child care institutions turning out to be dens of abuse, exploitation, inter-district and inter-state trafficking, the plea sought the court to direct the district legal services authority of all 32 district to immediately undertake inspection of all the children’s homes run by private individuals and religious bodies as well as those run by the government, conduct enquiries into the conditions therein and submit a detailed report.