The West Bengal Human Rights Commission on Friday sought a report from the Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate on why the police were yet to implement the order of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Burdwan, on the custody of four-year-old Abhigyan and 23-month-old Aishwarya, who are now with their uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya.
The Norwegian Child Welfare Service took the children away from their parents, Anurup Bhattacharya and Sagarika Bhattacharya, in May 2011 on the grounds that the parents were not in a position to provide them with necessary care. But after the Indian government intervened, the authorities handed them over to Mr. Bhattacharya in April. In November, the CWC issued an interim order that the children be handed over to Ms. Sagarika and that the police take the children away from Mr. Bhattacharya’s home at Kulpi in Burdwan and give them to Child Line, a non-governmental organisation.
“The WBHRC wants to know… the difficulty they [the police] are facing and the steps they have taken to implement the order. It has directed the Commissioner to submit a report within three weeks,” Sujay Haldar, Joint Secretary of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, told The Hindu here.
NGOs moved the Commission with a petition, arguing that the police had not acted on the CWC order.
“We submitted a petition signed by 53 NGOs working for women rights that despite the CWC order, the children have not been handed over [to their mother],” said Anuradha Kapoor, director of Swayam, a city-based NGO.
