Worried about children languishing in jails across the country, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has decided to work with the State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) to conduct inspections in jails to rescue them.
The decision was taken after a meeting of NCPCR chairperson Kushal Singh and State Commission heads here on Tuesday to review the status of children across India.
The NCPCR has also asked for robust monitoring of children’s homes and listing the “barriers in effective delivery of services in these homes”.
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“State Commissions have also been instructed to monitor children admitted in schools under the Economically Weaker Section category, as per the Right to Education Act, 2009. The students will be monitored to see if they stay in school and also to ensure that schools don’t slowly convert these reserved seats to general category,” said Ms. Singh.
The other areas of concern include education of migrant workers and the urgent need to build capacity of the State Commissions by training staff.
“We have also decided that the joint NCPCR-SCPCR platform would be used for sharing best practices for sharpening the monitoring mechanisms and fine tuning the quasi-judicial interventions of SCPCRs and the NCPCR,” said Ms. Singh.
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Ms. Singh said there is an urgent need to look into the issue of providing State Commissions appropriate infrastructure and manpower to ensure their effective functioning.
“The State Commissions play a significant role in increasing the range of publications in regional languages, which will help in creating/spreading awareness about child rights issues as envisaged in the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, 2005, and the rules made under the said Act,” Ms. Singh said.