Star Television had earlier this year shown an investigation on the sale of three children by one Chandra Shekar employed in Jahangirpuri home of Prayas, reports Chetan Chauhan.
A committee inquiring into the sale of three children exposed by a sting operation on television has found gasping holes in the implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 in the capital.
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Star Television had earlier this year shown an investigation on the sale of three children by one Chandra Shekar employed in Jahangirpuri home of Prayas.
Corroborating part of what was shown on television, the inquiry committee headed by NK Singhal, former Director General of Police, had termed the incident as an "aberration" on the part of Shekar. It also gave a clean chit to Prayas.
In its report submitted to the Women and Child Development ministry on November 10, the committee said, Shekar had a "good past record" and was "well spoken" about even by the children, who were under his care. "But, he could not resist the bait of heavy amount offered by the sting operators," the report stated.
Caught on camera, Shekar has been booked by Connaught Place police and has been dismissed from service by Prayas, the report said.
But, it was the Delhi Government, which was found to be lax in implementing the Act by the committee. "Relevant provisions of the Delhi Government rules under the Act, especially relating to reporting of children coming to or leaving the centres and the period of stay have not been followed strictly or uniformally," the report stated.
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In its eight recommendations, the committee has asked the government to come out with a clear-cut policy regarding drop-in-shelters. They should be distinguished from long-term shelter homes, the report stated, while recommending amendments in the law to making shelters more safe for children.
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In its eight recommendations, the committee has asked the government to come out with a clear-cut policy regarding drop-in-shelters. They should be distinguished from long-term shelter homes, the report stated, while recommending amendments in the law to making shelters more safe for children.
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The committee has also emphasised on better monitoring and assessment of functioning of shelter homes and constructing new homes at more secure locations. Another suggestion of the committee is counselling and vocational training facility for children in each home.
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.
