Guwahati: Nearly 300 children, hailing from Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, are lodged in shelter homes in at least 15 states of the country and in neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh.

According to a report prepared by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), at least 151 children from Assam have been provided shelter in Punjab, Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha and Mizoram. A child from Manipur has been lodged in Myanmar while 41 others are in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram. 

Altogether 28 children from Assam are in Jalpaiguri, Bengal, 17 in Morbi, Gujarat, 14 in Patiala and 12 in Jalandhar in Punjab, 12 in Haridwar, Uttarakhand and six in Gurugram, Haryana.

Officials suspect the child, who is lodged in a children’s home in Myanmar, could have crossed the unfenced stretch of the Manipur-Myanmar border.

Of the 94 children from Tripura, 58 have been found to be living in children’s homes in Haridwar in Uttarakhand, 16 in Tamil Nadu, 16 in Mizoram, one in Bengal and three in Bangladesh. Tripura shares the border with Bangladesh.
The commission’s report said seven children from Mizoram have been found to be lodged in children’s homes at Dehradun in Uttarakhand and five in Gurgaon in Haryana.

The report was compiled as part of the commission’s initiative to monitor the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection) Act, 2015. 

The apex child rights body last year had asked all states to submit the details of children taking shelter in child-care institutions along with the details of their home states, wherever identified.

Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are yet to submit the details to the commission. It had held a video conference with the states between February 5 and February 7 this year, reminding the states to take steps to reunite the children with their parents or home states.

The report says 5,604 children are taking shelter in 5,982 child care institutions across the country. 

According to the National Action Co-ordination Group for Ending Violence against Children chairman Chiranjeeb Kakoty, the children have either been victims of trafficking rackets taken out with the promise of care and education or some could have left their homes because of “circumstances not conducive”. 

“Some could be orphans, others are engaged in work which they don’t like and have run away. As many are very young, they can’t come back on their own,” he said.

“Some children even took trains and left because of circumstances,” he said.

The commission’s report also said 3,119 children are taking shelter in children’s homes in Assam, of which 26 belong to other states.