IMPHAL, June 12: The chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Thoubal district, Mala Lisam today said “the universally acknowledged right of the children for their protection is below the average in Thoubal district.” This statement was made in the discussion on ‘Juvenile Justice Act 2000’ which was organised in the conference hall of the Integrated Rural Development Service Organisation IRDSO, Wangjing.
Mala Lisam has lectured on ‘Structure and Legal Provision under Juvenile Justice Act, 2000’ (known as JJ Act) mentioning that there are provisions in JJ Act for the welfare and wellbeing of the children. She said that if a child involved in a crime, the child should be treated fairly in order to trace the cause of the crime. Under the provision of JJ Act, no children should be awarded severe punishment. She further said that right of life, right to grow, right to protection and right to participate is mandatory while mentioning that the follow up programme after rehabilitation was zero in Manipur.
Under ‘after case programme’ of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the government of India, there is provision for providing an amount of Rs. 500 but this facility was not available due to non implementation of the scheme, said the chairperson.
The chairperson also expressed concerns on the killing of girl child and rejecting of girl child after childbirth thereby throwing away girl child in Manipur.
Another resource person K Meghachandra Singh, SDPO Yairipok was also delivered on the topic ‘Crime against Children and Juvenile Police Unit’ articulating that there were intermittently misunderstandings between public and police in handling an investigation under juvenile justice case by juvenile police unit and expressing that cooperation is necessary for better result. The SDPO further said that district Police have supervised all police officers who are handling woman and child related cases for smooth and steady closure of their cases.
Nonibala Narengban, secretary IRDSO said in her key note address that ‘crime against child is higher in Thoubal district than other district’ revealing statistics that ‘out of the 12 cases of child missing in the entire state in the year 2012, Thoubal district shared 5 cases while 5 rape cases of girls were from the same district out of the 11 cases of the entire state.’ The secretary added that ‘a new case was found from every public discussion which demanding a concerted effort of the law enforcing agency, judiciary, medical department etc’, said it.
In today’s discussion, the reporter of AIR, Thoubal also delivered on the topic ‘Crime against Children and Media’ while Md Riaz JJ Board member, Thoubal talked on the care and concern of the child. S Sorojini Devi secretary of All Manipur Nupi Marup was moderated the function.
The discussion programme made the following recommendation: implement child marriage prohibition Act; provide rape victim trauma counseling centre to all districts; etc.