JOIN USChildcare institutions to face action if they don't register by December 31
Scores of child care institutions (CCIs) are likely to face penal action, including imprisonment, next year as they have failed to register themselves with the state, despite repeated reminders.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had directed the Central and the state governments to compulsorily register all CCIs/orphanages before December 31, to ensure minimum standards of care and protection to the children sheltered in these institutions.
With a fortnight left for the completion of the registration process, less than 900 institutions across the state have obtained the license, which is for a period of five years.
In Bengaluru alone, there are more than 1,000 CCIs functioning legally or illegally for the past many years.
The department of Women and Child Development (WCD), however, has received a mere 250 proposals for registration ever since the enforcement of the Juvenile Justice Act in January 2016.
Owing to severe staff crunch, the Bengaluru District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) has been able to vet only about 90 such institutions.
With merely four personnel, it is scrambling about to inspect and give clearances to the remaining 161 CCIs, majority of which are located on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
The office-bearers of the institutions that fail to register themselves before the stipulated date, will face six months imprisonment or Rs 1 lakh fine, or both.
Women and Child Development department officials said that the numbers of CCIs in other districts is not as unwieldy as in Bengaluru. However, enrolling even those institutions over the last two years was a big challenge, they said.
The biggest challenge before the department was getting to enrol religious institutions.
As of November, the department has registered 866 institutions. By mid-November, 13 more institutions were registered.
The WCD, which has been continuously issuing advertisements, has also reached out to the police department and the district administrations.
"We have asked the police, DCs, village accountants, PDOs, Zilla Panchayt CEOs, anganwadi workers and other field level functionaries to give us information about such institutions, or help us in the registration process. The formality has been completed in almost all other districts, except Bengaluru," said officials.
The department is in the process of issuing a final notification, appealing CCIs to register themselves before the deadline. "Those CCIs that fail to register themselves are sure to face the music," added officials.
The registration process not only helps streamline the adoption process but will also enable the state to keep a tab on all the children seeking shelter in these institutions.
The CCIs have to be registered as a trust or under the Societies Act. While submitting their proposal for registration, they have submit their audit statements for the last three years, annual reports, and details of each child under its care.
Those that fail to fulfill the criteria are facing rejection by the department.