KOCHI: Thiruvananthapuram district tops the chart when it comes to children feeling threatened and denied protection in schools and public places from anti-social elements such as alcoholics and drug peddlers.
According to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, there has been a marked rise in the past two years in the number of cases in which children are denied their protective rights.
"Children have right to protection. It's a fact that a majority of the complaints are on lack of children's safety. We are getting more such complaints from Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Kollam and Malappuram because people there are more aware about children's rights and come forward with complaints," said commission acting chairperson C J Antony.
"Of the total complaints we receive, 60-70 per cent of them are on protective rights of children. A child has the right to be protected from neglect, exploitation and abuse at home and elsewhere. In many cases, we have come across the failure of authorities in ensuing it,” he said.
A total of 2,402 complaints were registered with the commission in 2017-18. The corresponding numbers in the previous two years were 2,510 and 1,582 cases.
According to RTI activist D B Binu, who filed a query with the commission, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode saw the maximum number of complaints in 2017-18.
While Thiruvananthapuram registered 496 complaints, Kozhikode registered 244 complaints, followed by Kollam (237), Malappuram (207) and Ernakulam (189).
Though the number of complaints have been increasing in the past three years, the cases that are being disposed after hearing have fallen in the past one year.
Of the 2,402 complaints received in 2017-18, the commission has disposed of only 954 complaints. The number of complaints disposed of in 2016-17 stood at 1,754 out of 2,510 and 1,524 out of 1,582 in 2015-16.
"We have been doing our best to dispose of the maximum number of complaints with available resources. After hearing every complaint, we are forwarding it to the government recommending action. We only close a file after the government takes action on our recommendation. In almost all the complaints, we have recommended action. The commission records a complaint as closed only when it gets an action-taken report from the government," said Antony.
According to him, though the number of complaints has been increasing in the past three years, only 40 per cent of them were related to gross denial of rights to children.
"We also receive a lot of fake complaints. For many, it has become a routine affair to file complaints with the commission on trivial issues, which could have been settled by local bodies," he added.
Currently, the commission has a total staff of 41, which includes four members, a secretary and a registrar.