Centre asks child rights body for list of hotspots where street children are found to be submitted by April 25

Months after the Centre asked all states for a list of hotspots where street children are mostly found, and to prepare a calendar for carrying out rescue operations around the year in their localities, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has asked for the details to be submitted by April 25. The move has been prompted by a Supreme Court directive where the apex court took suo moto cognisance of their plight.

In July last year, the apex court had directed that states should upload the data on a portal. Consequently, on February 21 and March 28 this year, the NCPCR followed it up with a meeting with states on March 11. “NCPCR further, asked the states/UTs to share the list of mapped hotspots & rescue calendar for each district of the states/UTs with the commission, so that teams from the NCPCR could be sent to these districts for assisting the officials in the process of rescue and rehabilitation of those children in street situations,” the NCPCR said in the letter.

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The NCPCR says that so far, no information pertaining to the mapping of hotspots and details of rescue drives conducted in the states/UTs has been received by the NCPCR, and has now asked for the states to send in the details by April 25 this year. “Further, you may also provide calendar for undertaking the rescue operations in each of the districts for children in street situation from 1st May - 31st May, 2023 so that the commission could depute its official(s) to monitor the rescue of children in street situations,” the Commission has said.

The NCPCR last year said that in the eight months prior to July, they found 75 such hotspots and 270 FIRs. The child rights body had also launched an online portal named ‘Tracking Portal for Out of School Children’. In March this year, NCPCR chief Priyank Kanungo said that they had identified over 20,000 street children across the country who are in the process of getting rehabilitated.