Thiruvananthapuram: At the heart of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2014, is the progressive idea that children in need of care and protection should be placed in a family atmosphere and not in state-run welfare homes. If at all a child has to be institutionalised, the rules decree, it should be done only as a last resort.
However, contradicting its own ideal, the existing JJ rules have made the easiest form of de-institutionalisation, foster care, as difficult and cumbersome as adoption. Unfortunately, the Draft Model Rules framed under the JJ Act, too, has no alleviating measures. Result: children who could have been provided the warmth of a family, at least temporarily, will continue to languish in welfare homes.
Foster care homes are pre-adoption homes where a child is placed before adoption is granted. Till the 2014 rules came into being, the decision on placing children in need of care and protection in foster care homes was taken by district child welfare committees. But the Rules handed over the responsibility to children’s courts.
“A court that has hundred more important things to do, including sitting in judgement over POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases, cannot spare time for issues like foster care,” said Meera John, a child welfare activist. Complicating things further, the task of identifying the ‘fit person’, or the right family, for foster care too has been taken out of the CWC.
It is now with the Juvenile Justice Board, which deals with children in conflict with law. “How can a body that deals with criminal issues sit in judgement over issues of abandoned kids and children with disabilities,” asked a member of the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights. The arbitrary ways of certain CWCs are said to have led to such a situation. It has been found that some CWCs had even accepted money to place children in foster homes.
