The Supreme Court today said it was concerned over sexual and physical abuse of children at shelter homes across India and asked the Centre what action has it taken in the cases related to such abuse of 1,575 minors.
The apex court, while asking the government to consider framing a child protection policy, observed that according to social audit conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development from 2015 to March last year, 1,575 children were abused and now were living in the shelter homes.
"We are concerned about whether the children are looked after properly or whether they are abused in shelter homes," a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.
The bench, also comprising justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Pinky Anand, who was appearing for the Centre as to what action has been taken in these cases.
"1,575 boys and girls are victims of sexual and physical abuse. What have you done about it? Which are the shelter homes where they are kept? What action the states have taken on this," the bench asked the ASG.
The ASG told the apex court that social audit report was shared with states last year itself.
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"Tell us which states have not taken any action," the bench asked.
The ASG said she would get instructions on this and get back to the court.
The government told the court that social audit of child care institutions was conducted by the ministry in 678 districts across the country and as per the report, children were residing in 9,589 such homes.
It said out of these institutions, 32 per cent child care institutions were registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act while 33 per cent were unregistered.
Referring to the audit report, the Centre said that 8,744 homes were managed by NGOs and private individuals while there were 845 government-supported homes.
"Did they talk to the children (during the audit)," the bench asked, adding, "Did they find out any incidents of sexual or physical abuse?"