CHILD PROTECTION LAW AND POLICY- (Article)

 

INTRODUCTION                                 

Childhood is the age of innocence, joy and liberty where one hardly bares any responsibility and is spared from the hardships of adult life. A child is not needed to participate in various domains of life as is required by adults but is at a very delicate stage and can be moulded in any form depending upon the environment or circumstances prevailing around him/her. Hence, it is very important to provide the child with a peaceful and healthy environment which should be ensured by the parents. Considering the delicate age of the child, thereby, it becomes essential to protect the child from getting exposed to vulnerability. Despite of these, there are several children who are being exploited or are the victims of crime and who need protection. There are legislations and policies brought about by the government to ensure the safety of those victimised or are at the verge of being victimised.

EMERGENCE OF CHILD RELATED PROBLEMS WHICH AROUSE THE NEED OF LAWS TO PROTECT THEM

If we analyse the situation of children in India, the scenario will have a very clear visibility in front of us. The problems are depicted in the following 8 points:

1.      Exposing of Child population to Vulnerability

In a country like India, which has a huge population it gets difficult to provide everyone with the basic requirements since the resources are limited. This further leads to a slow pace of economic and social growth. There are several states in India which contribute to a significant number of population and therefore the focus-centre for child development in especially the rural areas and urban slums of these states becomes a matter of prime importance.

2.      Unfavourable Child-sex Ratio

Child Sex Ratio is calculated by determining the number of girls per 1,000 boys of 0-6 years of age group. If we look at the data from the census of 1961 to 2011, the picture would be more clear in front of us.

CENSUS YEAR	CHILD SEX RATIO
1961	976
1971	964
1981	962
1991	945
2001	927
2011	919

 

If the ratio would continue to decline at this rate then we can clearly imagine a situation where no girls would be left and the whole balance of race would be disturbed.

3.      Impact of Poverty on Children

There are several families in the country who are Below Poverty Line. Income in those families is not regular and adequate that would suffice the needs or it can be called as even the basic needs of the members including the children. This badly affects their health and nutrition intake and impacts the quality and quantity of food consumed by them. Hence, removal of poverty has been a matter of utmost concern for Indian Planners which could assure better implementation of laws and policies combining the ones formulated for children exclusively.

4.      Requirement of a uniform definition of the word ‘CHILD’

There are certain laws which do not define the age of Child in accordance to Article 1 of CRC (Convention on the Rights of Child) which states that anyone who is above 18 years of age comes under the category of a child. But the different interpretations of age of a child by different laws create a discrepancy while implementing laws when required.

5.      Discrimination faced by children

Article 14, 15, 17, 25-28, 29 & 30 targets to attain social and economic justice still children born in poor and backward classes starts life with several hindrances.

6.      Child Marriage

In spite of several laws against Child marriage, there are cases where duplicate documents are made in order to show the age above 18 years of girls and 21 years of boys to victimise them in the illegal child marriage thereby exposing them to several kinds of health problems.

7.      Provisions of Elementary Education

An additional clause under Article 51A was added as a result of the 86^th Amendment to the Constitution on Fundamental Right to Education for 6-14 years of age. Article 51A here stated that the parents are morally responsible to provide their child with opportunities for elementary education in the age of 6-14 years but what became the bone of contention here was the notion of the people towards the government that the government is shedding off its responsibility to impart education and make it socially and physically achievable by imposing it on poor parents who if get unable to do so are to be punished.

8.      Other crimes victimising the naives

These crimes include the serious offences which are crime in its true sense such as Drug Trafficking, Child Labour, Prostitution, Slavery, Child Trafficking, being subject to Pornography and Paedophilia.

LAWS AND POLICIES

1.      JUVENILE JUSTICE(Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015

      Chapter VI and Chapter IX of this act lays down the procedure laid down with respect         to the care and protection of a child and talks about offences against children including cruelty.

2.      POCSO(The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012)

This act talks about protecting children from sexual offences sexual harassment, pornography and provides for the establishment of special courts for the trial of such offences.

3.      National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(March, 2007)

The act framed under the authority of Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 directs to periodically revise laws, policies and programmes to check their consonance with child rights as bestowed by the Constitution of India and UN Convention on Rights of the Child which has been ratified by India.

4.      Directive Principles of State Policy

Article 39(f) and Article 45 lays down the provision of providing children with the opportunity of developing into a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity along with protecting them against exploitation. Also, free and compulsory education for children is to be ensured by government.

5.      Fundamental Rights

Article 14, 17,21,23,24 ensures all the citizens of India with Right to Equality, Life and personal liberty, Right against Exploitation. Also, Article 15 contains a provision which says nothing in the article shall prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children.

6.      National Policy for Children

The government is required to protect children from all kinds of harm, abuse, neglect, violence, maltreatment and exploitation at every place including care institutions such as schools, hospitals, crèches, families and communities.

CONCLUSION

Children are the building block of a nation and unless they are provided with a safe and healthy environment no development policy and strategy could lead to the development of a nation. There are several grey areas still left to be focused upon. At first, proper implementation of the prevailing laws is required. If the existing laws only are implemented to their full extent with a proper check and balance then a much of the problem would be resolved.

SUGGESTIONS

·         The Right to Education does not include the children of 3 to 6 years and the children of 15 to 18 years whom should be included as these both age groups are also the crucial part of a child’s life which can play a significant role in building his future.

·         A check on child sex ratio should be made in order to avoid future problems arising out of it.

·         The redundancy of documents should be monitored upon.

·         Crimes related to children should have very strict punishments so that the deterrent theory works.

·         Elementary education should be provided by the government attentively.

·         The definition of child should be standardised and fixed.

·         Poverty has to be worked upon.

 

 -Vanshika Jain

Amity Unversity.