NCPCR questions Arvind Kejriwal's Delhi Budget Remark; 15 days to submit report

During a press conference on Delhi Budget 2022 on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal informed that the state has allocated INR 10 crore for street children as it is planning to build a state-of-the-art school for them in which they would get all facilities.

Delhi Rozgar Budget 2022: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has questioned the Delhi government over the unavailability of information on issues related to children running away from childcare institutions in the national capital.

During a press conference on Delhi Budget 2022 on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal informed that the state has allocated INR 10 crore for street children as it is planning to build a state-of-the-art school for them in which they would get all facilities.

The Chief Minister said that till now, children were "grabbed" and put in childcare homes, where they were not taken care of properly, prompting them to run away.

NCPCR Demand Explanation

Informing that NCPCR conducts four monthly meetings with all states and union territories, the Commission’s chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said the Department of Women and Child Development of the Delhi government never brought up the issue of children running away from childcare homes.

"The NCPCR would like your good offices to provide the reasons for not informing about this serious issue of children running away from child care institutions in Delhi in the monthly review meetings conducted by the NCPCR with all states and UTs," Kanoongo said.

NCPCR has also asked the government to present an action-taken report on the poor condition of childcare institutions in Delhi and on the officers responsible for not complying with provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and its rules notified in 2016 in these facilities.

It also asked the authority to prepare a list of

• The number of 'children in street situations' rescued in the past six months.
• The number of children rescued from the streets and placed in childcare institutions in the past six months.
• The number of children who ran away from childcare institutions during the same time period.

The Delhi government has also been asked to provide details of those children who ran away, their children homes, dates on which they ran away, copies of FIRs registered and the number of registered child care institutions in Delhi and their details thereof.

The commission has given 15 days to the government to provide all these details along with the reports of inspections conducted in the last six months by the inspection committee and the CWC constituted under the JJ Act, 2015.

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