New Delhi: To monitor the progress in following up cases of child abuse registered in every state from the national capital, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is setting up a central database this July.
Speaking to The Wire, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said, “We are most likely making the monitoring mechanism operational this month. It will energise the system.”
“Since there are various laws related to cases of child abuse, such as the Bonded Labour Act, the Right to Education Act, the Child Labour Act, each needs a separate set of procedures to be followed. Sometimes, officials need to tally some figures with the labour department too. Several times, these procedural requirements also slow down a case. The central monitor will regularly collect data related to each case across the states so that we can follow up on their status from Delhi. Information about any reported case will be readily available on a digital platform, reflecting the current status.”
Priyank Kanoongo. Photo: Twitter
Kanoongo also said, “Through the central monitor, we will also be able to supervise from Delhi if any case has slackened due to the laxity of any official handling it in any state. So in a way, it will also monitor the efficiency of the entire justice delivery system.”
Yet another novel step that the commission, under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, has taken up from June-end onwards is to have a two-member bench of NCPCR travelling to a number of districts across the country in order to obtain complaints from members of public or non-governmental organisations.
“The sitting of the NCPCR bench in a district headquarters will also help serve a platform to disseminate information amongst the stakeholders about child rights and the role of the commission in ensuring those rights. It will help us ensure that most cases get reported. The initiative is taking place in a phased manner,” said Kanoongo.
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For the first phase, the bench will visit 50 places which will comprise of “at least one district from the select 115 aspirational districts marked by NITI Aayog.” The aspirational districts are marked on the basis of key performance indicators across a set of parameters, such as health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, basic infrastructure and skill development. Three of these parameters come under the monitoring mandate of the NCPCR as they are related to various rights of children specified under various laws and schemes.
The initiative took off on June 21 in Arunachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The second phase saw sittings in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh on June 28. On July 5, an NCPCR team of members will travel to Karnataka and Mizoram to be followed by a sitting of a similar bench in Chhattisgarh and Kerala.
According to NCPCR officials monitoring the initiative from Delhi, the list of officials who will attend the sittings include the members of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), local district magistrate or collector, the sub-divisional magistrate, members of the Juvenile Justice Board, chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, the chief medical officer, a representative of district legal service authority and assistant labour commissioners among others.
Though setting up an SCPCR is one of the mandates of the NCPCR, one of the two states where the bench had a sitting – Arunachal Pradesh – doesn’t have one. Upon being asked, Kanoongo said, “What happened is, the sole member of the Arunachal SCPCR became a national member (Rosy Taba) in March 2019 and shifted to Delhi. Soon after that, the model code of conduct was implemented because of the state and general elections there. We are now hopeful of setting one in the state very soon.”
Note: In a clarification issued in response to this story, the office of the NCPCR chairperson, however said, “The portal has not been finalised yet and is still in the developing phase. Therefore, it may not necessarily be launched this month.”
The statement added, “Also, setting up of SCPCR is not a mandate of NCPCR (as wrongfully stated in the article)”
However, the mandate of the NCPCR’s North East Cell, as mentioned on its website, clearly states, “Facilitating creation of (SCPCRs) wherever not available in NE states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram” as one of the components of its constitution.
