Thursday, August 14, 2008

Child rights panel to mandate FIRs for lost children

Aug 12th, 2008 By News Team Category: Articles
Dr. Avnish Jolly, 12 th August, 2008:
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in India is preparing guidelines to make it compulsory for police to file First Information Reports (FIRs) of missing children, with India reporting 44,000 such cases annually. The national child rights body is doing so after complaints from parents and child rights activists that often police refuse to take action in the case of missing children.
Sandhya Bajaj, NCPCR Member said that we are preparing guidelines to make sure that an FIR is registered within 24 hours if a parent approaches the police with the complaint of a missing child and in the case of missing children, a formal complaint has to be registered by the police. But parents have to run from pillar to post for it.
Once the guidelines are prepared, the NCPCR will send it to the Women and Child Development Ministry, proposing an amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act in this regard. "Efforts are being made to fix accountability with police who otherwise show a callous attitude towards complaints of missing children," Bajaj added.
According to official data, in India more than 44,000 children of all ages go missing annually and Delhi tops the list with 6.7 per cent of the total cases. The data was collated by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after the Nithari serial killings in which the remains of 20 young girls and women—who were raped and murdered—were found in a drain in Noida.