Taking a note of the alleged s*xual abuse and harassment of children inside juvenile homes, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday constituted a four-member committee to look into the matter.
Setting up the committee, a division bench headed by chief justice Ajit Prakash Shah and justice Manmohan said, "Bureaucracy will remain bureaucracy and will not change people who are insensitive towards these children. So we need to form a committee that can regularly visit the homes and look after their welfare.''
"Our priority is to solve the problems in juvenile homes... It has been pointed out there is no sensitization training for the people who are working there,'' the bench said while hearing a public interest petition that alleged rampant s*xual abuse and ill-treatment of minors lodged in juvenile homes. The four-member committee would comprise of the joint director (technical) from the social welfare department's women and child development wing, two principal magistrates (respective jurisdiction) and one representative, either from an NGO or from a legal fraternity to be appointed by Delhi Legal Service Authority.
"The committee will observe the conditions inside the homes and conduct surprise inspections from time to time. It will submit its first report within two weeks to a two-member judge committee,'' said the bench while posting the matter for hearing on September 2.
During the course of the hearing, Mukta Gupta, counsel for Delhi Police, submitted that they had roped in National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in this regard. Earlier, the bench had told Delhi Police to send children inside juvenile homes to proper schools and not only engage them in vocational studies. The HC had also sought help from the secretary of health and family welfare department to formulate broad guidelines on the subject.
