NCPCR directs 8 states to start sending children placed in child care homes back to their families

The countrys apex child rights body NCPCR has directed eight states that account for over 70 per cent of children in care homes to ensure their return to their families, noting that it is the right of every child to grow up in a familial environment.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said the decision was taken also keeping in view the alarming concerns over the safety and security of children residing in these institutions as well.

The eight states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Mizoram, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Meghalaya — have 1.84 lakh (or nearly 72 per cent) children in child care homes out of a total of 2.56 lakh in the country.

The NCPCR has directed the district magistrates and collectors of these states to ensure that the children living in these care homes return to their families, preferably within a 100-day period.

Those who could not be sent back to their families must be placed for adoption or in foster home, it added.

Speaking about the direction, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said this exercise will be carried out in a phased manner beginning with these eight states and it will be then executed in the rest of the country.

“The principle of the Juvenile Justice Act is to keep children with families, and keeping children in child care homes must be the last resort till all attempts are made to give them an atmosphere of home,” he said.

“It was observed in south India that some CWCs (child welfare committees) are ordering to keep children in children homes due to the poverty of the family. You cannot take away the right to family from a child because of poverty. It is the failure of the state if due to poverty the child is forced to reside in child care homes. It is the duty of the state to strengthen the family so that they could take care of their children,” he told

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