NEW DELHI: The Union Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry is set to come up with a new child protection policy for shelter homes across India that will fix accountability of all authorities involved.
The development comes in the wake of recent instances of sexual abuse of minor girls at shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Sources in the WCD Ministry said that it had earlier come up with the guidelines drafted by the NGO Childline in 2013 before the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 came into being, but they were only a “wish list”.
“Through the new guidelines, we want to ensure accountability so that when things go wrong, people in certain positions are answerable and there is more sense of responsibility in dayto- day functioning. We are looking at defining responsibilities of each stakeholder, including district magistrates and child welfare committees for the purpose,” said a top official in the ministry.
The ministry will submit on October 8 the revised policy in the Supreme Court, which is hearing a case on Muzaffarpur shelter home sex abuse.