Jharkhand will be building a shelter home for orphans above 18 years to fulfil a provision in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act- 2015.
Named Place of Stay, the shelter will be meant for orphans who can no longer be accommodated in regular government shelters where children below 18 are accommodated and also for those who facing cases in a court of law.
“In Jharkhand, there are around 72 shelter homes for children, including 10 for children in conflict with the law where children up to 18 years stay. These shelter homes are run by the government as well as authorised NGOs. Currently, 3,223 children are living there. Now, we have planned to build a shelter home for persons above 18 years,” minister of women, child development and social security Louise Marandi told the media on Monday at Suchana Bhavan where she also highlighted the achievements and priorities of her department.
Special secretary D.K. Saxena, who was also present at the media interaction, explained that shelter homes were meant for children who were either orphaned or separated from their parents and family due to legal complications or circumstances beyond their control.
Shelter homes, he added, were also meant for children who had committed a crime.
“These are children who are in conflict with law. Such children, till they are 18, are kept at shelter homes. But technically once they attain adulthood they can’t be accommodated at shelter homes. Yet, we cannot leave such children unattended till their cases are disposed of,” he said, adding that Place of Safety was an institutional mechanism within the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act-2015.
“There is a provision in the act to set up a proper shelter home for adolescents. A proposal has been finalised and we are looking for a suitable location to construct a building,” Saxena said. Teenagers above 18, he added, would be accommodated at the Place of Stay till they are 21.
The women and child department suffered a crisis of credibility in July last year when a Ranchi shelter, Nirmal Hriday, managed by the Missionaries of Charity, was embroiled in a baby sale racket that had apparently been going on for long.
The racket, busted after a childless couple who paid for a baby, was later asked to return the child. The incident revealed that the department did not have any mechanism of monitoring the activities of the shelters.