Mysuru: The Child Welfare Committee of Mysuru did not release a three-year-old baby boy, who was rescued from Hinkal and kept at Bapuji Children’s Home, to his parents after a meeting on Saturday.
While the CWC has asked Women and Child Development officials to conduct an inquiry, the child’s parents, Putti and Manju, have been asked to attend the next CWC meeting on Wednesday.
Putti and Manju said that they do not even have a proper hut to live. “But that doesn’t mean we do not love our child. We don’t have voter IDs to get a BPL card and other facilities of the government. I am a rag-picker and my husband is a mason. But we are happy and we have been able to manage two square meals a day. When I go out, my husband takes care of the child and when he goes out, I manage the house. I cannot survive without my baby,” Putti said.
Advocate and Director of People’s Legal Forum said, “The objective Juvenile Justice Act is to ensure that the children stay with parents and family. Institutional care is the last resort. There is hardly adequate child friendly atmosphere at government homes for boys or girls and no conducive atmosphere at the Destitute Relief Centre or the Beggars’ Colony. There are no creches for poor working parents when they go out to work. It is not just the case of Manju and Putti, but most of the underprivileged people do not have voter IDs or BPL cards to avail of the benefits from the government. The CWC, being a quasi-judicial body with magisterial powers, can write to the deputy commissioner or different departments to ensure that the parents get their voter IDs and BPL cards to help them get government benefits, like Annabhagya. Entire families should be housed in destitute homes and they should be given vocational training to equip them with some skills. Unless the Parents are rehabilitated and counselled well, the children will be back on the streets again,” he said. Child rights activist Vasudev Sharma said, “The police should check if the children are trafficked and reunite them with their parents,”
Another child rights activist Swathi said, “The police should check if there is a mafia pushing these children to begging.”
Deputy Commissioner C. Shikha said, “We will take necessary measures to provide such families voter IDs and BPL cards, and try to rehabilitate the parents of rescued children.”
16 more children sent to homes
On Saturday, the State Juvenile Police Unit picked 16 more children, including a girl, from the streets of Mysuru under their campaign “Operation Smile”, a month-long initiative that started from January 18.
This time, the police have also picked up four of their mothers who were found with the children and have placed them at Shakthi Dhama, the home for destitute women. One girl is housed at a government home for girls and ten boys have been moved to the home for boys. CCB ACP Gopal said that the children are aged between four and 12. One of the children is from Uttar Pradesh and two others from Rajasthan. Some were begging, while others were selling small items on roads, he said.
