Rights Of Children From Northeast Being Violated: Nina Nayak

 Nina Nayak, Commissioner for KSCPCR (second from left), interacting with presspersons in Mangalore on Friday.

Mangalore, Mar 26 : There is “total violation” of the rights of children who have been brought to Karnataka from Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur, Nina Nayak, Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), said here on Friday.

During an interaction with presspersons organised by the Journalists' Study Centre here, Ms. Nayak said the children were brought here for schooling.

Describing the phenomenon, she said that the “displacement of children” from their home environment to five or six districts in Karnataka resulted in their not being able to adjust to the food and climate.

When the commission conducted an inquiry, it found to its “shock” that the children aged around five could speak perfect Kannada and were found to be reciting shlokas.

She said that around 20 children were studying in Dakshina Kannada. There were 3,000 such children. The institutions brought them here because they were “very good at sports”.

Ms. Nayak said that a large number of institutions across the State providing child care facilities would be illegal because they were not registered with the Government.

Giving an example, she said that around 15 children housed in a “Hindu religious institution” were removed from the place because it was found that they were being made to conduct religious rituals, and so on.

“This institution filed a case against us, but fortunately the judge understood (the circumstances) and said that the institution could keep children if it had proper facilities as mandated by law,” she said.

Ms. Nayak said that according to Section 34 (3) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2006, every residential facility for children must be registered with the Government, making a large number of children's homes across the country illegal. Only recently the Government asked the deputy directors to obtain information on this, she said.

The former chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Dakshina Kannada, Hilda Rayappan, said that there was no place to receive children who were rescued from the streets or were found to be in need of care and protection after the Bala Mandira (a reception centre for children) was closed here a few years ago.

Photo: R. Eswarraj