Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Children's home or jail?) that was published in Newsband

Children’s home or jail?

One feels shocked when one reads reports of children being ill-treated and that too by those adults whom children look upon as their protectors. We generally hear about isolated cases of under-age maids or servants being deprived of food or beaten in private houses. There are instances of the shelters for the children turning into virtual torture chambers. Here the inmates are at the mercy of sadistic and perverted people who are in charge.

These are just the reported cases. But what about those many cases which go unreported? Many victims don’t lodge complaints with the right authorities because they fear that if they did so they will be tortured more. There are of course cases of some brave children who have escaped from the clutches of their horrible tormentors and managed to tell the tale to police or authorities of social organization. But what about those who prefer to suffer silently?

If the children are females there is danger of them being forced into the flesh trade. Female children are the most vulnerable lot. 

In India, there are may children living in homes which are registered under the Juvenile Justice Act. But side by side there exists many unregistered homes. But we find that even the unregistered homes continue to receive government grants-in-aid. This shows the lack of political and administrative caution. At least the private donors insist that child protection policy be observed by homes to which they make monetary contributions. But the government doesn’t care at all. That’s the reason there are some who run such homes and who don’t hesitate to exploit the children admitted in their organizations. Most of these children are from the underprivileged sections. Most of these children regard such homes as jails.

It is high time the government did something drastic to prevent these children from getting exploited in those places which are referred to as ‘children’s home’. If this is not done one can imagine what the future of such children will turn out to be. They will either get converted into criminals or any type of anti-social elements and the society will have to face the terror and horror of violence unleashed by such elements. So this problem should be solved at the root.