NEW DELHI: Three of the 10 Child Welfare Committees (CWC) in Delhi whose task is to look after the functioning of shelter homes have been without any office-bearers since July this year.The tenure of the chairperson and members of these committees ended on July 1, 2018 and the positions have been lying vacant since then. According to the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD), Delhi, applications for these posts have been received and interviews are taking place to fill them.
The CWC-I and CWC-VII, both in Nirmal Chhaya Complex, Hari Nagar, and CWC-II in Kasturba Niketan Complex, Lajpat Nagar do not have any members at all. The CWC-IV in Mayur Vihar Phase-I and CWC-X Children Home for Boys in Alipur do not have chairpersons. Former CWC members underlined the need to fill the posts urgently given the incident in Dilshad Garden, where nine girls went missing from a shelter home.
“The tenure of three CWCs in Delhi ended this July, since then the posts are vacant. Members from other committees have been asked to look after their roles, increasing the workload. As a result the children are suffering,” said a former member of CWC-VII. Two former members, one of them also a Juvenile Justice Board member, said this is the first time the positions have remained unfilled for over five months.
According to the former members, the committee is not accepting their application for a consecutive tenure after the government decided that there should be “a three-year gap” between two tenures.
“Each member and chairperson undergoes training on how to handle children-related cases. It takes over a year for them to settle in. By not accepting our applications, the WCD department is undoing our efforts,” said an ex-chairperson.