PANAJI: The Pro-Child Network (PNC), a network of groups working for children’s rights, on Monday expressed shock over the possibility of women victims of human trafficking being temporarily be shifted to State-run home Apna Ghar — an observation home, a special home, and a children's home — housing girls and boys.
Ms. Nishtha Desai of the PNC told The Hindu that the organisation has urged the State government to immediately revoke any order given by the State Directorate of Women and Child Development to shift the women from the Protective Home to Apna Ghar, stating that the move was ill-conceived and detrimental for everyone involved.
The PNC, comprising of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and individuals concerned about children's issues, has time and again highlighted the need to improve the situation of children in Apna Ghar by ensuring separate premises for children in need of care and protection, for children in conflict with the law, and separate premises for girls and boys in accordance with the recommendations of a State-conducted Inquiry Report prepared by Levinson Martins.
The PNC has opposed the move through a petition submitted to the Chief Secretary, the Secretary and Director of Women and Child Development, the Superintendent of the Protective Home, the Registrar of the Goa State Legal Services Authority, the Juvenile Justice High Court Committee, the National and State Commissions for the Protection of Child Rights, and the State Human Rights Commission.
The organisation also claimed that housing children and adults in the same premises would mean curtailing the mobility of each of the concerned categories to ensure that there was no interaction between them. At present, the fact that boys and girls are kept in close proximity to each other is the justification provided by the authorities for keeping the children in captive conditions.
The group remarked that the needs of the women and the children were different and are governed by different laws. Apna Ghar houses children and is registered under Section 50 (1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which only provides for minors to be admitted into the institution. Inmates of the Government Protective Home are adult victims of commercial sexual exploitation, rescued under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act (ITPA), and they can be lodged only in an institution registered as a protective home under Section 21 of the ITPA.
“Even temporarily housing the women in Apna Ghar will not be conducive to the rehabilitation of the women or the children. The proposed shifting of the women to Apna Ghar is a recipe for disaster and should be struck down immediately,” said Ms. Desai.
