SC order infuses life into CID’s child protection cell project

The project had faced several hitches in 2009, the biggest being the shortage of women police officials. Those already in force were reluctant to get additional duties for juvenile cases. The CID had even trained 80-odd women cops with lectures and seminars on juvenile laws by child rights activists, lawyers, NGOs and expert training sessions in New Delhi to run these units.

In 2011, the Home Department had issued a notification to implement the Juvenile Justice Act in toto, stating that an ASI or constable-rank cop would be appointed as child welfare officer. The children found committing crime should be produced before the JJ Board within 24 hours and not kept in police station lockups.

The Ahmedabad woman police station was the first to begin the juvenile justice unit by reserving one section of the police station. The section was planned to be painted with bright colours, decorated with toys, books etc, and one regular assistant from an NGO to help the child welfare officer. However, the unit was soon converted into a seating arrangement area, which was torched during clashes in October 2012.

The CID has now decided to reactive its old project and train women officers again (if necessary) to hand over the task of juvenile units. "The project faced shortage of funds and lack of push that could help develop these units in even district women police stations. With this, the state police would recruit more women cops to be able to run these units filling up all the vacancies in districts. Even if we cannot bring about the same concept of a bright patch in women police stations, the Home Department will allot suitable budget for women police stations to help them set up fully equipped units," Pratham added.

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