Focussing on children in need of care and protection

The handbook is useful for people working in the area of child rights

BANGALORE: There is still a long way to go for all children in India to dream of living a healthy, happy childhood free from abuse and exploitation. The protection and promotion of child rights in India vis-À-vis the juvenile justice system is an issue that needs to be addressed with much seriousness and concern.

“Justice for Children,” – a Handbook on Implementing The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 and the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2006, is an attempt to guide the statutory body under the Juvenile justice system, the child welfare committees while dealing with the web of legal maze of procedural and substantive laws.

Representatives of non-governmental organisations got a sneak preview of the handbook co-authored by Nina P. Nayak and Anuradha Saibaba Rajesh at an informal programme here recently. The venture is supported by Child Fund India and Karnataka State Council for Child Welfare.

According to the authors, the handbook focuses on children in need of care and protection, that is, children who are exploited or abused and abandoned. It is largely based on the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2006 and the Karnataka Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules 2002. The Constitution of India, other laws relating to children and the international human rights instrument, the Convention on the Rights of the Children are also appropriately referred to.

The predominant aim of “Justice for Children” is to serve as a reference tool primarily for the Child Welfare Committee members in Karnataka and functionaries of the Department of Women and Child Development and itself draws from the experiences of the five-member committee here. Additionally as child protection issues gain increasing awareness amongst the public, the handbook can be useful for anyone working in the area of child rights and protection — be it academicians, activists, voluntary organisations, students, childlines and so on.