Reporting instances of abuse and cruelty by staffers or persons in-charge at child care institutions (CCI) is not easy. While the victims themselves are unable to directly report them due to the imbalance in power, most such crimes are reported to the police by either parents or child rights bodies and child welfare committees (CWC).
On the one hand, the parents of these children, who are mostly daily wage labourers, are either unaware of how to, or not inclined to report the crimes to the police. On the other hand, the CWCs’ first instinct in most cases is to “talk and arrive at a settlement” without having to escalate the matter to the police.
These crimes include cruelty to children by CCI staff (Section 75), employment of children for begging (Section 76), using children to smuggle or sell intoxicating substances and narcotics (Section 78), sale and procurement of children (Section 81), exploitation of child employees (Section 79), use of children by militant or other groups for illegal purposes (Section 83), and giving children intoxicating/psychotropic substances or narcotics (Section 77).
Juvenile Justice Act amendment could make it harder to report abuse at child care institutions.
