THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Social Justice Department will prepare a child care protocol that will be both a summation and compilation of all the scattered government orders related to social justice and juvenile justice in the state. Once the protocol is ready, child management in the state's welfare institutions will be standardised.
"The work has already begun on the manual," a top Social Justice official said. "As of now child management is a messy and complex affair, taking its cue from a host of directives that are at times even contradictory," the official said. Take for instance, the strategy of institutionalisation. While early orders speak of constructing more homes, recent orders veer towards taking children away from welfare homes. "To make matters worse, employees in children's homes are not trained in the modern ways of child management," the official said. The protocol will be a ready reckoner for officials working in the Social Justice Department.
Simultaneously, the Social Justice Department is also in the process of transforming caretakers in the Children's Home into psychological counselors.
"Managing orphaned and destitute children, and also those who had exhibited criminal tendencies, is a complex art. Even the most sedate child is frustrated as he cannot move freely like a normal child," said Veena Jose, a child counsellor.
The need to restructure the management of children's homes has been a major demand ever since the Prakashan Master Committee report, in its report submitted in 2010, had revealed the miserable plight of children in welfare homes across the state. Nonetheless, some minor measures have been taken in the meantime. Earlier, for instance, the practice was to shut children in Observation Homes (where children in conflict with law are to be placed) in a cell resembling in a jail. But now, the children are held in a hall where they get maximum possible freedom of movement.
Child rights activists, however, feel that it would be too much to expect the current set of caretaker to mend their ways. "Caretakers are used to treating children like criminals. Third degree is their way of controlling these kids," said Sekhar, a former social welfare officer.
