File status report on implementation of SOP on rehab of street children, SC asks NCPCR

The Supreme Court has decided to examine an issue of rehabilitation of street children by States and Union Territories as it asked the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to file a status report on implementation of the standard operating procedure.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj to submit the details within two weeks.

As the law officer submitted that the standard operating procedure has been circulated to States and Union Territories, the court also told them to file a status report on the rehabilitation of children in street situations in accordance with the norms, within a period of two weeks.

In the SOP, prepared in 2020, the NCPCR has suggested that teams can be constituted by statutory bodies like SCPCRs and the district child protection mechanism for conducting surveys or adopting other means to collect information and data on Children in Street Situations (CiSS) and carry out rescue operations within the ecosystem created by the law.

Notably, there is no official data on street children as their numbers estimated by various NGOs varied between 0.2 to 18 million.

The top court was hearing a suo motu matter registered as 'In Re Contagion of Covid-19 Virus in Children Protection Homes.

The court put the matter for consideration on November 15. It also decided to take up then the finalisation of draft SOP, in respect of the recording of evidence of child witnesses through video conferencing, prepared by the amicus curiae in consultation with senior advocate Anitha Shenoy and Shristi Agnihotri.

The court said the response in the case should be filed within two weeks as it was informed that the draft SOP would be sent to the state governments and all the High Courts for their comments.

Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, acting as amicus curiae, submitted that the standard operating procedure for care and protection of children in street situations was prepared by the NCPCR in 2020. In the document, the NCPCR relied upon the National Plan of Action for Children, 2016, and the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 to highlight the need for rehabilitation of Children in Street Situations (CiSS).

NCPCR has broadly categorised three types of CiSS, children without support living on the streets all alone; children who stay on the streets in the day and are back home in the night with their families, residing in nearby slum or hutments; and children living on the streets with their families.

Section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 defined “child in need of care and protection”, which includes a child who is found working in contravention of labour laws for the time being in force or is found begging, or living on the street.

Section 30 (xii) of the JJ Act obligated the Child Welfare Committee having information about CiSS within their jurisdiction to reach out to them.