Jamshedpur: The East Singh-bhum administration has started verifying the credentials of seven child care centres that operating in the district, but officials admit that monitoring has been lax over the years.
According to records available with the district child protection officer Chanchala Kumari, seven child care institutions (CCIs) were running in the district. All were registered under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015.
One child care institution had shut down operations early in 2016 and kept the state women and child development department informed.
"The JJ Act came into force in 2016 and the child care institutions were registered only last year," said Kumari, but added that due to a shortage of manpower in the 12-member district child welfare committee - it has only five members now - they had not insisted on the CCIs submitting documents every month.
"However, all CCIs have now been asked to submit monthly reports in the first week of every month. We will be checking documents on a regular basis and maintain a database to track each child. A copy of all documents will be submitted to Jharkhand Legal Service Authority (Jhalsa) and the state women and child development department," she explained.
After the revelation that babies were being sold from Nirmal Hriday, a Missionaries of Charity-run shelter on Jail Road in Ranchi, East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amit Kumar asked SSP Anoop Birtharay on July 7 to constitute a four-member panel to inspect existing CCIs.
Headed by DSP city Anu-deep Singh, the panel comprises Jamshedpur block child development project officer (CDPO) Durgesh Nandini, Mahila thana in-charge Laxmi Kumari and district child welfare committee member Alok Bhaskar.
"So far, we have inspected four child care institutions. Currently, we are verifying the information provided in their registers. We are also contacting parents to whom their children had been surrendered to by the institution. The idea is to know whether those children are fine," said Nandini.
The CCIs functioning in the district are Missionaries of Charity (Baradwari), Michel Obama Educational and Welfare Society (Birsanagar), Mother Teresa Welfare Trust (Telco), state-run Sahyog Village (Sonari), Kantha Singh Anathalaya (Ghatshila), Mahamilan Seva Ashram (Ghatshila) and Mahila Kalyan Samity (Baharagora).
Somaiya Memorial Trust (Mango) shut down in 2016.
Mahila thana in-charge Laxmi Kumari said that over the last few days, they had inspected and collected records from Missionaries of Charity, Michel Obama Educational and Welfare Society, Mother Teresa Welfare Trust, Sahyog Village. "We have also sought records from the now closed Somaiya Memorial Trust. After completing formalities, we will be inspecting CCIs in Ghatshila too. It is taking time as we have to check records of so many years," she said.
