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The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has informed the Supreme Court that a majority of states and Union Territories (UTs) are still at the stage of identification of children who have lost their parents to Covid-19 and that the rescue of these children has not been initiated so far.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the states/UTs to come up with suggestions regarding the manner in which children in need of care and protection are rescued and rehabilitated.

However, NCPCR has further informed the bench that states like Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have taken steps in accordance with the SIP 2.0 for rescue and rehabilitation of Children in Street Situation (CiSS) and have uploaded the data of children on the "Baal Swaraj-CiSS" Portal as well.

NCPCR in its affidavit further informed the Court that in view of the directions of the Court, NCPCR also conducted a program to celebrate Children Rights Day wherein an exclusive session chaired by the Chairman, NCPCR was also conducted to discuss the steps taken by the States/ UTs and other stakeholders.

It was further informed that the SOP 2.0 categorizes CiSS into three broad categories:

1. Children without support of living on the streets alone;
2. Children staying on the streets in the day who are back home in the night with their families who reside in nearby slum/hutments;
3. Children living on the streets with their families.

It further added that the Bal Swaraj- CiSS portal developed by the NCPCR has following stages which are necessary to know status of CiSS and follow up after they are rescued and rehabilitated:

• Stage 1 is for the information relating to identification of children;
• Stage 2 is for the uploading information for knowing the social background of the children;
• Stage 3 is for identification of benefits and recommendations under the Individual Care Plan (ICP) of the children;
• Stage 4 is when the order of the Children Welfare Committee is to be uploaded;
• Stage 5 has the name of schemes/ benefits, which can be linked with the child or the family or the guardian;
• Stage 6 comprises a checklist for the follow-up of the child, given as per the three categories of children identified in the SOP 2.0 of NCPCR.

Background

Earlier, the Court had directed the District Magistrate and Collectors from each district of the country to take steps in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 2.0 and to provide data to the Secretary of Department of Women and Child Welfare, who shall be the Nodal Offiicer to ensure prompt action is being taken to implement SOP 2.0 of NCPCR.

Further, the Court also directed that this process be taken up immediately. The authorities in the State were directed to identify and provide information to NCPCR which will guide them on what is to be done at later stages. The States/UT were also directed to promptly attend meetings by NCPCR and offer suggestions, voice concerns in this regard.

The NCPCR filed its compliance affidavit through Advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi before the Supreme Court, bringing to the notice of the Court the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 2.0 which was prepared on November 17, 2020 to strengthen the processes and intervention regarding children in need of care and protection and the court was informed that SOP 2.0 has been circulated to states and Union Territories.

The Court had further noted that the SOP 2.0 consists of 1) identification of issues and challenges 2) recognising and categorising 3) appropriate intervention 4) process to be followed by authorities and 5) role of authorities while dealing with them.

The Court also took note of the fact that 51 religious institutes have been given the task of rescuing children and to rehabilitate them from child labour and beggary. The Court further noted that NCPCR has developed a new link called “CISS” on the Bal Swaraj portal for receiving data from all states/UTs to track the rescue and rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection.

The Court also directed the registry to change the cause title of the case to IN RE: Children in Need of Care and Protection on suggestion of Shobha Gupta, Advocate.

When the matter was called for hearing, Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agarwal, told Court that a voluntary organisation called ‘Save the children’ along with NCPCR had mapped about 2 lakh children who are living in the streets (Children in need of care and protection).

He further submitted that an exercise was conducted in 4 states across 9 cities to map children in need of care and protection.

The states where the exercise was conducted are Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Chandauli, Prayagraj and Kanpur) West Bengal (Kolkata, Howrah) , Maharashtra (Pune and Nasik) and Delhi. The Amicus Curiae submitted that there were 70,000 children in need of care and protection in Delhi alone.

Additional Solicitor General K. M. Natraj, appearing for NCPCR submitted that they were holding virtual a virtual meeting with the officials and other stake holders to formulate an action plan to rescue and rehabilitate such children and asked the Court to direct the State governments/ Union Territories to attend these meetings and ascertain how many children in need of care and protection are there in each State/UT.

He further submitted that given that there are 2 lakh children in 9 cities alone, there may be 15-20 lakh children in need of care and protection across the country. He further sought the Court to direct the States/UTs to take steps in accordance to Standard Operating Procedure 2.0 to identify and rehabilitate them.

Cause Title: In Re: Contagion of Covid-19 Virus In Children Protection Homes