THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An indifferent and rudimentary child welfare infrastructure has caused hundreds of children in need of care and protection –abandoned, lost, orphaned, victims of sexual abuse and child labourers – to languish indefinitely in the state’s poorly-run children’s homes. According to the latest periodical report of the Legislative Committee on Social Services, over 300 cases are pending before the 14 district child welfare committees (CWCs) in the state.
Each CWC, a quasi-judicial body appointed to settle cases related to children in need of care and protection, receives on an average 30-40 cases a month. The cases are brought in by Child Line activists, police or even parents and relatives who find that it is hard to support the child. The CWC, after securing a report from the probation or child welfare officer, has to decide whether the child should be provided psychological help, sent to a government shelter or foster home or should be readied for adoption.
However, the reports of the probation officers are hard to come by. “There is just a single probation officer in a district and this officer is saddled with all manner of investigations related to the Social Justice Department, right from visits to houses of convicts to requirements of the elderly destitute. The reports naturally get delayed,” said a senior probation officer.
During this interim period, while waiting for the report, the children are just dumped in the shelter homes across the state without any plan for their future. The reports, which are to be filed in not more than three months, are submitted after three to five years, if at all they are submitted. It is also found that the CWCs are not proactive enough.
“They are supposed to meet twice a week. At least in half the CWCs, they go for months without even meeting once,” said a top Social Justice Department official. This means that cases are not even brought to some of the CWCs.“The CWC members are paid only '500 for each sitting and even this is paid only after a year. Their travel allowance, too, is minimal,” the official said.
