KOCHI: The lives of 29 children rescued by the childline officials from Ernakulam North railway station in May hangs in a limbo owing to differences of opinion between the state government and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) officials.
The CWC officials had found that the orphanage Kadheejathul Kubra Islamic Complex, Nettoor, did not carry the required certificates from the concerned CWC official of their state of any of these children. This gave rise to suspicion and led them to direct the further accommodation of these students to an orphanage in Edappally.
The orphanage officials claimed that the children were brought over from various parts of the country for studies, 20 children were already studying in various schools and nine of them were new additions. Earlier this week, the state government had submitted before the Kerala High Court (HC) that the children were brought with an intention to give them proper education. Besides it was also pointed out that according to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 the CWC will be responsible for children only if they come under the section 2(d) of the Act. This in turn has put the CWC authorities in a fix, as they have been asked to justify their role by the court.
“We have contacted the Social Justice Department before we make our next move. The orphanage officials are yet to provide the CWC certificates of the children and without seeing the children the CWC officials will not issue them certificates. We have also consulted with one of the chairperson of CWC to find an amicable solution,” said Child Welfare Committee Chairperson P Padmaja Nair.
It was also found that one of the children from the group had run away from the orphanage in Edapally and that he was found in his hometown in Haryana, informed childline officials. The officials also stated that the incident raises the question as to weather they really want to study. The orphanage officials have approached the HC and filed a petition requesting the release of the children immediately.