Tag: child

US couple alleges adopted child assaulted at Gaya centre, 5 held

Source: hindustantimes.com

PATNA: The Bihar government on Saturday closed an adoption centre in Gaya after a US-based couple complained that a child adopted by them from there in August this year was physically abused.

A case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has also been lodged and five persons have been arrested, officials said on Sunday. They said all 13 children from the centre have been shifted to other centres.

“Following the allegations made by the US couple, we have been asked by the CARA [Central Adoption Resource Authority] to get the medical examinations done of all other children at the Gaya adoption centre and submit a report by end of September,” said Rajkumar, the director of Bihar’s social welfare department.

CARA works under the Union women and child welfare ministry and deals with inter-country adoption.

The US-based couple had adopted the five-year-old girl on August 17 from the social welfare department centre being run by a non-government organisation in Gaya. All the 13 children who lived there are all below six.

“After completing the formalities in Gaya, the couple left for Patna to get the passport of the adopted girl. They returned to the US on August 30,” said another social welfare department official, who is aware to the adoption case but not authorised to speak to the media.

CARA, in the first week of September, received a letter from the couple alleging that the child may have been mistreated at the Centre on basis of “discomfort in walking” and her “uneasiness” in seeing the pictures of the adoption centre in Gaya.

The official said that the allegations made by the couple were surprising as the girl underwent a medical test at a leading hospital in Delhi and was issued a fitness certificate before leaving for the US.

“Soon after the receiving the letter, the matter was reported to Mufassil police station, Gaya, by assistant director, child protection unit, and an FIR for offences under various sections of POCSO Act was lodged against the adoption centre. Five persons were arrested on Saturday,” the official said and added that the centre has been sealed.

Rupesh Kumar Sinha, station house officer of Mufassil police station, Gaya, said the case was registered on the basis of the complaint by assistant director, child protection unit, Gaya. “It was alleged in the letter that the baby girl might have gone through some physical abuse at the [adoption] centre. Five persons from the NGO, which used to run this Centre, have been arrested in this connection. The accused have been sent to the jail and adoption centre has been closed,” he said.

Mob attacks scientists in Bihar suspecting them to be child kidnappers

Source: gulfnews.com

Patna: Two scientists were beaten up by an angry mob of villagers in Bihar on the suspicion of being child kidnappers.

As per media reports, around 20 incidents of mob attacks or lynchings have been reported in the past month in Bihar.

Reports quoting police officials said that two geologists were conducting a survey at Chafla village in Kaimur district on Monday when it started raining. They took shelter under a tree to avoid being drenched.

In the meanwhile, some children from the area also came there, after which the scientists offered them fruits. The children fled the scene and informed the villagers.

Instantly, a mob rushed to the spot and began assaulting them suspecting them to be kidnappers. The geologists managed to flee the scene and informed the local police, which registered a case against 100 unidentified people.

“We have registered a case and action was being taken against the attackers,” the local police station in-charge Kripa Shankar Sah told the media on Tuesday.

Police officials said the geologists were conducting a survey of the area about the presence of mineral resources but the villagers mistook them as kidnappers.

Incidents of mob attacks and lynchings have seen an alarming rise in Bihar and in the past one month alone, around 20 such attacks were reported in which at least four people were killed, media reports said.

The majority of incidents have been reported from Patna, the capital of Bihar, with the main reason behind the attacks being rumours of child kidnapping.

The police have regularly launched awareness campaigns while top officials, including the Bihar’s director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey, have appealed to the masses to maintain calm but this has failed to put a brake on such incidents.

As things fails to improve, the police department has now issued instructions to the heads of all police stations in the state asking them to take videos of the mob violence.

“You [police officials] are hereby instructed to make videos of mob violence so that the persons involved in the crime could be identified and action taken against them,” Bihar’s inspector general of police Sanjay Singh told the media.

According to Singh, from now on all the cases will be registered against named persons and action will also be taken against the villagers who make the video during the mob violence.

509% rise in cases under child labour law: Study by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation

Source: nationalheraldindia.com

There has been a 509% increase in the number of cases registered under the child labour law since 2017, according to a research study on child labour by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF).

KSCF has carried out the study ‘Child labour know more’ with the objective of identifying gaps in the implementation of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and strengthening national efforts towards elimination of all forms of child labour by the year 2025 as per the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a press release said.

“Since 2017, an increase of 509% in the number of cases registered under the child labour law has been recorded as per a study based on information sought under the RTI Act,” the release said.

However, it said, a comparison between this data, the figures provided by the National Crime Records Bureau across three years and the Census of India 2011 brings out the “massive disparity” between the number of working children in India and the number of cases, registered and prosecuted.

RTI replies from across the country revealed that no case of child labour was registered in Haryana, Kerala, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh in 2017. Rajasthan and Bihar contributed 84% of the total cases registered, it said.

“Another glaring deficiency in the policy regime for abolition of child labour is non-disbursal or disbursal with huge delays of monetary compensation and the yawning gaps in efficient delivery of rehabilitation measures,” the release said.

The report also provides a range of recommendations to address the gaps in protection, prosecution, rehabilitation and prevention of child labour in the country.