State told to formulate proposalfor housing kids with special needs

Lucknow The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has direct the state government that an appropriate proposal for housing the children with special needs in

Lucknow The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has direct the state government that an appropriate proposal for housing the children with special needs in the age group of 0-10 years should be jointly worked out by the departments of Women Welfare and Divyang Jan Vikas.

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The court issued the direction as facilities which are presently available and are being administered through the department of Women Welfare “are not adequate to take care of the children with special needs in the age group of 0-10 years”. It expected that some concrete proposal is presented by the next date (Feburuary7) before the court by the directorates of the said departments.

The court issued direction due to reports of deaths of newly born children who are sent to these homes.

A division bench of justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Rajan Roy passed the order on December 6 on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking directives for betterment of children shelter homes of the state. Various direction had been issued by the court in the case for the same.

Petitioner’s counsel Adarsh Mehrotra raised the issue relating to accommodation of children with special needs between the age group of 0-10 years. He informed the court that at present there were three such homes to accommodate children in Lucknow, Varanasi and Gautambudh Nagar. However, no such separate facility for children with special needs in the age group of 0-10 years was available there, he said.

“In the aforesaid circumstances, we direct that the said issue shall be brought to the notice of department of Divyang Jan Vikas by the Director, Women Welfare at the earliest”, the court said.