The year 2014 turned out to be year for safety in children’s homes in Tamil Nadu. The issue received unprecedented attention after two minor girls, aged 10 and 11, from the TELC children home at Pollachi were raped at knifepoint in June.
Following this incident, many rules which had till then existed only on paper, have been implemented scrupulously. Under intense focus, the standards at children’s homes have improved in recent days after the authorities stepped up inspections and cracked down on those flouting the norms.
The gravity of the offence also led to the State Government coming out with comprehensive rules for enhancing women’s safety in both private and state-run hostels and homes and putting the onus of protecting them equally on owners and the official machinery.
Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras have now become mandatory in all children’s home, which have also been instructed to provide separate guards for boys and girls, if they are both staying in the same home, says District Child Protection Officer G. Vijaya.
At the Child Welfare Coordination Committee meeting, held on December 29, Coimbatore District Collector Archana Patnaik directed the District Child Protection Unit to install notice boards on child sexual abuse in all the children’s home in Coimbatore district. Similar notice boards have already been installed in all Government schools to mark the International Day against Child Abuse.
Further, all the Home Management Committees, chaired by the District Child Protection Officer, its members include the Secretary, Superintendents and teachers of respective homes along with a District Child Welfare Committee member and a Juvenile Justice Board member are now meeting every three months. “It interacts with the children in these homes and tries to address their grievances,” says Ms. Vijaya.
According to the District Child Protection Officer, there are as many as 4,436 children in various homes in Coimbatore district. All of them have been registered with the online child tracking system operated by the Department of Social Defence. The police also coordinate with the tracking system to trace missing children.
