Visakhapatnam: Children rescued from various places in the district are being retained at children homes for a longer time rather being sent to their respecting places.
As per the rules under the Juvenile Justice Act and also the objective of the children home is after proper counseling the children should be sent back to their homes whether it is within state or other states. However, due to the poor facilities to track the missing and trafficked children, the concerned officials of the children home are also unable to identify the nativity and parents of the children.
“If the kids are retained at children homes, they might loss their schooling and forget their tradition and culture and moreover their mother tongue. So, the children home authorities are being asked to send the children back to their places within stipulated time and a new rule has been framed in this connection recently,” said the Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) in-charge chairman S. Balaraju. He also expressed concern over the poor conditions at some children home as the children are sleeping on floor due to shortage of bed.
There are 103 boys’ home and 19 girls’ home for the rescued children in the district. Some are being run by voluntary organizations too. Besides the state, many missing children from the neighbouring Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal are also staying at the children home.
“We want to form inter-state collaboration system as children could be tracked soon only when there is a mechanism to ensure mutual cooperation among the states. Once, a system is formed, the children could also be sent back to their homes with in a stipulated time,” said the APSCPCR chairman.
