Supreme Court asks states to complete process of identifying street children without delay

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed the states and union territories to not delay the process of identification of children on streets across the country.

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“The concerned authorities in the State Governments, Union Territories need not wait for any further instructions from the NCPCR or directions of this Court for proceeding with collecting relevant information on the social background of the children, identification of the benefits under the Individual Care Plan, enquiries to be conducted by the Child Welfare Committees under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and linking the schemes or benefits with the children, or their families or guardians,” said an official statement.

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The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had filed an affidavit looking at which, the bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai showed concern upon a low numbers of such children identified and the slow movement of the first stage of the process of rehabilitation.

As per a LiveLaw report, the bench noted that on the basis of the information available on the website, only 3,655 children have been identified whereas the court was told there are around 70,000 to 80,000 children in Delhi alone. The information appears to be incomplete and looking at the six stages listed by NCPCR, it is a matter of concern that they are still stuck on stage one.

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“The NCPCR is directed to file a status report within a period of four weeks from today. In the meanwhile, the District Magistrates shall upload the relevant information, not restricted to Stage I, but also the information relating to the other stages. The State Governments, Union Territories shall file a status report about the steps taken for rescuing and rehabilitating the children in street situations within a period of three weeks from today,” the court order said.