Cases pile up as Karnataka govt keeps child rights panel headless

The KSCPCR, which has the powers of a civil court, was formed in 2009 in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Complaints on child rights violations are rising and so is the pendency, because the statutory body responsible to deal with them has been headless for nearly two years, delaying justice.

The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), which has the powers of a civil court, was formed in 2009 in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The three-year term of Anthony Sebastian as KSCPCR chairperson ended on December 6, 2021. With Jayashree Channal as the acting chairperson, the body cannot register suo motu cognizance of child rights violations as there are no members as well. The term of all six members ended in July 2021.

This is the first time the KSCPCR has had an interim chairperson this long. As a result, perhaps, the number of pending cases has touched a five-year high at 366.

Although applications were invited to fill up the post, no one has been picked so far. Lack of political will is to blame, sources from the department of women and child development say.

“The file on the appointment of chairperson has been sent to the chief minister long back, but we aren’t aware why it is getting delayed,” a senior official of the department says.

The law is clear that the chairperson should not be a member of any political party or have any association with political offices. As it turns out, however, association with the ruling party of the day has become the main qualification for the KSCPCR chairperson’s job.

It is learnt that lobbying for the post is still going on, delaying the process further. While Minister for Women and Child Development Halappa Achar has recommended one name in the file, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is said to have someone on his mind to whom he wants to give the job. If that is not enough, some ministers are mounting pressure on Bommai with their own set of names.

The delay has had a precarious fallout. “Two major crimes against children have been reported. One of them involves a prominent mutt in Chitradurga (Murugha Mutt). The other case is the murder of a 12-year-old girl in Mandya by her tuition teacher. The Commission was supposed to have registered suo motu cases on these incidents,” a former KSCPCR member points out.

In 2021-22, the KSCPCR received 480 complaints. Of them, 18 dealt with the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and 15 are still pending.

“The delay in appointing a full-time chairperson and members by the government is in itself a violation of child rights,” former KSCPCR chairperson Kripa Alva says. “It is sad that there’s no one to protect child rights in the state. The government is not taking it seriously because children are not a vote bank.”

According to Alva, the KSCPCR used to get at least 15 cases daily. “Definitely, it would have increased ten-fold now, as child marriages and child labour cases rose during Covid,” she says.

Apart from Pocso, the KSCPCR gets complaints on Right to Education (RTE), child marriages, child labour, trafficking and so on.

“I feel the government is not interested in protecting the rights of children,” child rights activist Nagasimha G Rao says, underlining the role KSCPCR plays when it comes to Pocso and Juvenile Justice cases.

Despite repeated attempts, Women & Child Development Minister Halappa Achar was not available for comments.