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

The Supreme Court's recent order to equip all police stations with a juvenile justice unit has given a new lease of life to an over three-year-old project of the Gujarat CID, which proposed to have child protection cells in women police stations across the state.

Nine years after a central law — The Juvenile Justice Act (2000) — was passed and six years after Gujarat decided to implement it, the women cell of the CID took up the initiative in 2009 to set up juvenile justice units in all women police stations. But the project got shelved due to various reasons.

Now, the project has got a new life after the SC's order of January 17, 2013, following which all women police stations in Gujarat will host Child Protection Cells (CPCs) or juvenile justice units to handle cases for both "juveniles in need of care" (who are missing, victims of human trafficking, left homes, etc) and "juveniles in conflict with law" (minors found committing crimes under the Juvenile Justice Act).

These children can be handed over to an adoption centre or an ashram if they have been abandoned or forcefully brought into labour work or begging.

The children who are found committing crimes should be also intervened and brought to these units for counselling before being taken to observation homes for their terms.

"The SC order has given a boost to restart the project that was lying unattended for a long time. Now the women police stations will work as full-time juvenile justice units with CPCs, also in rural districts where juvenile cases of both nature will be probed by women cops. This has given a push to the state to set up these units, which we had long thought of," said IGP CID (Women Cell) Anil Pratham.

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