Sans members, child welfare committees in a quandary

State govt fails to appoint new members for Child Welfare Committees in four years

The state government has failed to appoint new members for Child Welfare Committees (CWC) for nearly four years now. While the term of the existing committees ended in 2019, new members have not been appointed till date.

The last members’ selection for CWCs was done in 2016 and their term ended in 2019. With the government’s inordinate delay to appoint new members, those selected six years ago are still continuing in the committees. Many have even left the committees.

Speaking to DH, N Manjula, Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Empowerment, Differently Abled and Senior Citizens, said they had sent a request to the High Court for appointment of a retired High Court judge who will chair the selection committee. Women and Child Welfare Minister Achar Halappa Basappa told DH that the government would ensure that the process of selecting CWC members is completed soon.

However, several CWC members who spoke to DH on the condition of anonymity said such assurances have been frequent from the department and no action has been taken till date.

The members lamented that the government’s apathy was affecting resolution of cases. “There has to be a quorum of three members to take decisions on cases. Without this, we will have to go the nearest district with our files,” one CWC member said.

In some cases, the CWC of one district has been merged with another for lack of members. In Gadag, for instance, where there is only one member, the committee has been merged with the Dharwad CWC. “The member here has to go to Dharwad with all the files,” the CWC member added.

It may be noted that the department had constituted a selection committee in 2019. The committee called for applications too. However, the proceedings were stopped as the High Court set aside the department’s appointment, after it was found that two members who were not qualified were appointed to the committee by the then minister Shashikala Jolle.

The government reconstituted the selection committee in 2021, replacing the two members in question. Applications for the CWC members have been called for twice since then without the process going further, sources said.