Unperceived Child Trafficking and Illegal Adoptions Midst Covid-19
This Article attempts to demystify that the cataclysmic Covid-19 pandemic devastated one of the most vulnerable section of society namely, the children who have become orphans due to the demise of either the breadwinner of the family or of both their parents. The second half of the Article discusses various acts and national scheme implemented by the Centre government for protecting and preservation the children’s from become victim of child labours and child trafficking. The current pandemic havoc has left many young children to fend them and reportedly hospital authorities are asked to take declarations from sick parents, to confirm who their children should go to in case of their death. The National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) has been allotted responsibility of maintaining data on number of children who got orphaned or abandoned during first as well as second wave of pandemic. Moreover, the Article also continues to discuss the step taken by Indian Judiciary for streamlining the whole process of complying data identifying children in need of immediate care. Further, at the last Article highlights the need of cohesiveness between Centre and State government in order to cater the current dire situation. The author also appreciates the work and major directions taken by the Centre and State government to mitigate present threat to child right.
I. Data of child line foundation delhi
The data released by Child line Foundation Delhi (2018-2019) report states that the organization received almost 62 Lakh calls. The largest numbers of calls were intending intervention for abuse cases, followed by child labour and missing children. Amongst the child abuse category, 37% of the complaints were about child marriage, 27% about physical abuse, and 13% regarding sexual abuse. The Childline official also says that with the gruesome Covid-19 situation in the country there is a 15% rapid surge in the distress phone calls. Many notorious individuals who are responsible for running illegal rackets are trying to get benefit out of this unprecedented pandemic situation where many children who have either lost their parents or presently are accompanied. For mitigating and preserving the rights of the children, the Indian Government took recourse to various Acts and Schemes. These Acts and Schemes are as follow,
Juvenile Justice Act (JJ), 2015
The Juvenile Justice Act (JJ) is significantly playing its role in the eradication of child-related crimes and addresses the major social lacunas in the system to protect the children. The Act also mandates every citizen to report a case of an orphaned child under their knowledge to appropriate authorities. Once identified, the act empowers the Child Welfare Committee to take responsibility for the child as a guardian.
The individual interested in adopting a child has to register oneself on child adoption resource information and guidance system (CARINGS), irrespective of their marital status and religion. After registration, the specialized adoption agencies prepare a home study report. Lastly, the Specialized Agencies approach the Court for their final order for adoption. Moreover, according to the 2021 amendment of the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ), instead of Courts the District Magistrate including Additional District Magistrate will have the power to issue the order establishing that the age difference between adoptive parent and child is of 25 years and also to ensure that there is no abuse of power once an adoption is approved.
Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012
Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act is a special law made for protecting children from offenses against sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. The act differentiates between crime performed against an adult and crime against children and provides more stringent punishment in case of crime performed against children who are below 18 years of age.
The Act provides immediate relief and required rehabilitation to the child victim as soon as a reasonable complaint is made to the local police or special Juvenile Police Unit. Besides these, the Act is also in conformity with various Constitutional provisions which are responsible for the freedom and dignity of vulnerable groups, safeguarding children against exploitation and harassment by the perpetrator. Under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act, whosoever commits penetrative sexual assault against a child below 18 years of age will have to face punishment up to ten years extendable to life imprisonment and fine. Whereas for sexual harassment the Act prescribes imprisonment up to three years and fine.
- Operation Smile Mission, 2014
Operation smile drive was initiated by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) member and current Defense Minister, Rajnath Singh protecting children from being pushed into prostitution, bonded child labour, and ill-treatment by parents. According to the report of 2015, the number of boy child rescued are more than girl child who is mostly pushed into prostitution. The Ministry of Home Affairs has urged various state governments to train and assist their police officers in understanding the importance of acts like Juvenile Justice (JJ), Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), and Protection of Child Right Act for disseminating information regarding illegal trafficking and forced disappearance of children.
- Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, 2015
In 2015, the government of India with coordination of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, and Human Resource Development started this initiative know as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. The initiative was promoted basically to tackle India’s alarming child sex ratio (CSR) and removing gender inequality. To publicize the initiative the government started educating public sector employers and school teachers to improvise the current education system and strengthen women empowerment.
II. Protection granted by the law
With the surge in Covid-19 cases and rising death toll, Twitter and Whatsapp have been flooded with the number of false advertisements and brochures sharing details of children who’s both or child having only one parent, succumbed to death. Moreover, Chairperson Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked the authorities to flag these types of posts on the various social media platform. As the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act vehemently prohibit any offering or receiving of children apart from the processes laid down under the Act. The offender will be punishable with three to five years of imprisonment or a fine of up to one Lakh rupee.
When there is an unaccompanied child without a guardian, the State is considered as the automatic legal guardian of that child. The individuals who bring these children home without following the mandate of the government under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act will be held accountable for illegal adoption and custody of the child will be taken back by the respective State.
III. Intervention by Indian judiciary to protect kinship rights
Children who are orphaned or abandoned due to Covid-19 must be protected and guarded
until they are legally adopted. And more recently for proper compliance of adoption laws, Delhi High Court has accepted two pleas filed by two Advocates. The Delhi High Court has also issued the notice to the Delhi government, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), Union Ministries of Home Affairs, and Women and Child Development and Health to seek their responses. The plea has also sought financial assistance to all those families whose parents died due to bed, oxygen, or ventilator shortage in government-owned hospitals.
The first plea requested the authority to facilitate the custody of such children either to their near and dear or child care homes in Delhi to preserve their identity. While the second plea contended that State agencies have failed to maintain any data regarding the number of children whose parents were infected or succumbed to the disease. It also claimed that in absence of such data, these kids are more vulnerable to child trafficking and social abuse.
The Supreme Court bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose is suo motu examining ways to protect children who have suffered personal loss and trauma due to deplorable Covid-19 situation in the country. The Court stressed on recent data released by the Bal Swaraj also confirmed by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), an online tracking portal of a national child rights body, NCPCR further conveyed the Supreme Court that as many as 3,621 children were orphaned, 274 were found abandoned and 26,176 lost either parent since April 1, 2020 to June 5, 2021. The Supreme Court pull up Centre and State government to take stringent measures against both individuals and NGOs who are either revealing the identity of orphaned children or inviting people for adoption of orphaned children by following any guideline other than Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
IV. Conclusion
The Union government has announced a special PM- CARES for children who lost their parents due to Covid-19. The scheme will include a corpus of rupee 10 lakh for each child till he or she reaches the age of 18. When the child turns 18, he/she may draw a monthly stipend from the corpus of rupee 10 lakh to meet his or her personal expenses.
The Delhi government more recently announced that children who have unfortunately lost their parents or single parent due to a lamentable pandemic will be allocated an ex-gratia amount of Rupees 2,500 up to 25 years of age. Additionally, the State government will also take care of his/her education. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has also come forward with a helping hand and offered help to kin who lost their guardians due to viral infection. The State government has announced 5,000 monthly pensions, free ration to families suffering loss, free education and lastly all the surviving guardian, parents, and kin will be offered interest-free loans to start a business for managing their future affairs.
Notably, the Madhya Pradesh government along with Women and Child Development (WCD) has started tracing and maintaining the record of all those children who are presently parentless or unaccompanied due to several other reasons for protecting children from becoming a victim of illegal trafficking and adoption. The government has promised to provide 2,000 rupees every month even to children who got adopted during the Covid crisis.
Pandemic has been wreaking havoc both for adults and children as the virus doesn’t understand this language of class, gender, and seniority. Hence, humanity is the fundamental tool to preserve and safeguard people around the world. The Centre and State government of other States, must cooperate and unite together to come up with similar solutions like Delhi and Madhya Pradesh to gear this unnoticed illegal adoption and trafficking.
Excluding this India is also a signatory to the Universal Convention on Rights of Child (UCRC), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR) that proclaims every child right to seek protection, assistances, practice any religion, environment, education for all despite their color, sex, race, and region they belong to. Notwithstanding India being a signatory to all these international conventions and treaties is still not obliged to comply with sanctions and regulations mentioned under them.
For creating enhanced obligation and implementation of these treaties any developing country like India should ratify above mentioned treaties and conventions for preservation and protection of child rights both in and outside the territory. The Declaration of the Rights of Child importantly mentions that a child needs appropriate legal protection both after and before birth for overall development and this could only be possible in a congruous environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and cooperation.
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V. Références
1. The Print Newspaper
2. The Hindu Newspaper
3. Child-line Foundation Data
4. Rostrum’s Law Review Journal
5. Article 15(3),39(e)(f) of Constitution of India
6. POCSO, JJ Act
7. Economic Times
8. Business Standard
9. New India Express
Article 23 & 24 of ICCPR, Article 10 of ICESCR, UCRC
Footnotes
- Author is a student at Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida, India.
- Author is a student at Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida, India.