Child plan set to get nod, but funds shrink

Four days after two persons were sentenced to death in Nithari case, the Planning Commission approved a scheme to prevent a repeat of such incidents, but NGOs say the money allocated for it in the interim budget is “grossly inadequate, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 18, 2009, 14:34:10 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Four days after two persons were sentenced to death in Nithari case, the Planning Commission approved a scheme to prevent a repeat of such incidents, but non-government organisations say the money allocated for it in the interim budget is “grossly inadequate”.

Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee on Monday proposed Rs 54 crore for the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICPS) under which child protection units would be set up in each district.

The same evening, the plan panel approved the scheme, paving the way for the Cabinet’s nod before the Lok Sabha elections are called. In its national common minimum programme, the UPA had promised a scheme to protect the rights of children.

“We expect (Cabinet) approval soon as all hurdles have been cleared,” said a senior women and child development official, who didn’t wish to be identified.

The scheme was conceptualised after the Nithari incident came into light in December 2006. In the 2007-08 Budget, the government allocated Rs 85 crore for implementing the scheme. As the scheme was not approved, the funds remained unspent. The next fiscal saw a repeat even as the allocation was increased to Rs 180 crore.

“Now when the scheme is all set to get through, the government has allocated only Rs 54 crore,” said Bharati Ali of HAQ Centre for Child Rights, an NGO working for children’s right.

“No less than Rs 200 crore is required for paying money to the members of the child welfare committees and juvenile justice boards in each district,” she said.

The Juvenile Justice Act mandates that each district have a child welfare committee for children in need of protection, and juvenile justice boards to hear cases in which the accused are children.

Raj Mangal Prasad of NGO Pratidhi said he expected a substanial increase in funds in the complete budget.

“Allocation for welfare of juvenile criminals, setting up of homes for street children… in each district would be made under ICPS,” an official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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