1.Who is a Child?
The Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000 defines a
“child as a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age”.
This definition is in congruence with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2.What is Child Protection?
The term ‘Child Protection’ is used in different ways by different
organisations in different situations. Children are often subjected to violence,
exploitation, abuse and neglect. In its simplest form, child protection addresses
every child’s right not to be subjected to harm. It complements other
rights that, inter alia, ensure that children receive what they need in order
to survive, develop and thrive.
A successful protection action increases a child’s chances to grow up
healthy, confident and self-respecting both physically and mentally and therefore
less likely to abuse or exploit others, including his or her own children.[1]
3.Who is a Juvenile?
As defined by the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000,
“juvenile is a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age”.
The term ‘Juvenile’ has been used in the Act in the context of Juvenile
in Conflict with Law.
4.What is Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000?
The Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000 is the primary
law for care & protection of children in India. The Act intends to consolidate
and amend the law relating to juveniles in conflict with law and children in
need of care & protection, by providing for proper care, protection and
treatment by catering to their developmental needs, and by adopting a child
friendly approach in the adjudication and disposition of matters in the best
interest of the child.
5.Who is a Juvenile in Conflict with Law?
The Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000 refers a juvenile
alleged to have committed an offence as a Juvenile in Conflict with Law.
6.Who is a Child in Need of Care and Protection?
As defined by Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000,
children in need of care & protection means a child who:
is found without any home or settled place or abode and without any ostensible
means of subsistence;
resides with a person (whether a guardian of the child or not) and such person
has threatened to kill or injure the child and there is a reasonable likelihood
of the threat being carried out, or has killed, abused or neglected some other
child or children and there is a reasonable likelihood of the child in question
being killed, abused or neglected by that person;
- is mentally or physically challenged or ill or suffering from terminal
diseases or incurable diseases having no one to support or look after;
- has a parent or guardian and such parent or guardian is unfit or incapacitated
to exercise control over the child;
- does not have parent and no one is willing to take care of or whose parents
have abandoned him or who is missing and run away child and whose parents
cannot be found after reasonable inquiry;
- is being or is likely to be grossly abused, tortured or exploited for
the purpose of sexual abuse or illegal acts;
- is found vulnerable and is likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking;
- is being or is likely to be abused for unconscionable gains;
- is victim of any armed conflict, civil commotion or natural calamity.
7.What is Juvenile Justice Board (JJB)?
As provided by the Juvenile Justice Act 2000, the Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs)
are established by the State Government to deal with matters relating to juveniles
in conflict with law. The JJB consists of a panel of Metropolitan Magistrate
or Judicial Magistrate of the first class and two social workers of whom at
least one shall be a woman.
8.What is Child Welfare Committee (CWC)?
The Juvenile Justice Act 2000 empowers the State Government to establish Child
Welfare Committees (CWCs) in every district or a group of districts to deal
with children in need of care & protection. CWC has the final authority
to dispose of cases for the care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation
of children in need of care & protection and to provide for their basic
needs and protection of human rights. The Committee consisting of 5 members
including a Chairperson and four other members, one of whom should be a woman
& another an expert on matters concerning children.
9.What is Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU)?
As provided by the Juvenile Justice Act 2000, SJPU of which all police officers
designated as juvenile/child welfare officers are members to be setup in every
district and city to coordinate and upgrade the police treatment of the juveniles
and the children. The Act provides for at least one police officer in every
police station with aptitude and appropriate training and orientation to be
designated as Juvenile/Child Welfare Officer to handle juvenile/child in coordination
with the police.
10.What is the status of implementation of Juvenile Justice Act 2000?
As per the information available with Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment,
28 States and UT Administrations have framed/enacted their respective State
Rules under Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000. These
States/UT’s are in the process of setting up JJBs, CWCs and other institutional
infrastructure for effective implementation of the Act. For the current status
of implementation of JJ Act 2000, please visit http://www.socialjustice.nic.in/social/impleJJ.htm
11.What is Adoption?
The very basic definition of adoption is that it is the creation of a parent-child
relationship between persons who are not related so by birth. The minimum function
of law in creating this artificial parent-child relationship is to put it on
par with the natural one. In practical terms, it means that the same mutual
rights and obligations that normally exist between parent and a child born to
them would automatically apply to the adopted child in relation to the adopted
family.
12.Who regulates adoption service in India?
The Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) monitors and regulates the working
of adoption agencies, which are recognised by the Central Government. It also
works in close co-operation with voluntary coordination agencies and enlisted
Indian and foreign placement agencies. The main objective of this Agency is
to facilitate the adoption of as many Indian children as possible.
13.What is Foster Care?
Foster care is a unique situation of temporary family-based care to children
who cannot remain in their own home due to child protection concerns or exceptional
special needs or who are ultimately to be given in adoption. In foster care
the child is placed in a family for short or extended period of time depending
upon the circumstances where the child’s own parent(s) usually visit regularly
and eventually after the rehabilitation, where the children may return to their
own homes.
The Foster Care Programme is based on the belief that a family
is the best environment for raising a child. A foster family is a temporary
family for a child whose birth family is unwilling or unable to assume full
responsibility for the child. The goal of foster care is to return the child
to his or her own family as soon as possible.
14.What is Child Sponsorship?
Child sponsorship is a way of raising long-term support for children whilst
providing a rich and rewarding experience to donors. Child sponsorship establishes
a relationship between a donor and a single child in a way that personalises
the challenges of community development while allowing donors to see how their
money is making a difference to the life of an individual child, family and
their community. Sponsorship helps provide necessities such as access to education,
health care, nutrition and other needs
The Juvenile Justice Act 2000 provides for sponsorship programme
for providing supplementary support to families, to children homes and to special
homes to meet medical, nutritional, educational and other needs of children
with a view to improving their quality of life. It empowers the State Government
to make rules for the purposes of carrying out various schemes of sponsorship
of children, such as individual-to-individual sponsorship, group sponsorship
or community sponsorship.
15.What is CRC?
The term ‘CRC’ stands for Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It is a universally accepted UN Convention ratified by all the Countries except
U.S. The Convention prescribes a set of standards to be adhered to by all State
parties in securing the best interest of child. It lays down four sets of rights
namely, Right to Development, Right to Protection, Right to Survival and Right
to Participation. The General Assembly of United Nations adopted the Convention
on 20th November 1989 and the Government of India ratified it on 11th December
1992.
16What is Rights based approach?
A rights-based approach to programming means that we must be mindful in our
development work of the basic principles of human rights that have been universally
recognized and which underpin both CRC and Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to ensure:
- equality of each individual as a human being;
- inherent dignity of each person;
- rights to self determination, peace and security.
Programming from a rights perspective does not mean that for
every article of a convention there must be specific indicators to measure it
and an appropriate programme/ project-level response. The foundation articles
of CRC express the overarching principles of: non-discrimination, the best interest
of the child, the right to participate and have one’s views considered
and the right to survive and develop.
17.Why do we need a Rights based approach for child protection?
A rights-based approach is fundamentally different from a needs-based approach.
Approaching a situation from the rights perspective informs and empowers people
of what their legal rights are. By approaching the needs of children from a
rights perspective, all action on behalf of children is based on their rights
as a matter of law, not simply on the fact that they need a certain type of
response.
18. What is Child Trafficking?
Child trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of persons below the age of 18 years, within or across
borders, by means of threat or use of other forms of coercion, of abduction,
of deception, of the abuse of power or of position of vulnerability or, of the
giving or receiving payment or benefits to achieve the consent of a person,
with intention or knowledge that it is likely to cause or lead to exploitation.[2]
Main elements of child trafficking are:
- Involvement of persons below the age of 18 years;
- Geographical displacement of such person(s) either by way of procurement,
sale, purchase, recruitment, transportation, transfer or harbouring;
- Use of force, threat, intoxication/substance abuse, deception or fraud;
- Pecuniary consideration for using this force, threat, intoxication/ substance
abuse, deception or fraud on such persons;
- Gain or profit to another set of people; and
- Exploitation of children either during the process of being trafficked
or as the end result of trafficking.
19. What is Child Abuse?
Child Abuse is physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment or neglect of children by parents, guardians, or others responsible for a child's welfare. Physical abuse is characterized by physical injury, usually inflicted as a result of a beating or inappropriately harsh discipline. Sexual abuse includes molestation, incest, rape, prostitution, or use of a child for pornographic purposes. Neglect can be physical in nature (abandonment, failure to seek needed health care), educational (failure to see that a child is attending school), or emotional (abuse of a spouse or another child in the child's presence, allowing a child to witness adult substance abuse). Inappropriate punishment, verbal abuse, and scapegoating are also forms of emotional or psychological child abuse. Some authorities consider parental actions abusive if they have negative future consequences, e.g., exposure of a child to violence or harmful substances, extending in some views to the passive inhalation of cigarette smoke.[3]
20. What is Trauma?
Trauma is the situation in which the abused child is after the abuse.
Traumatized children may also be those who have been traumatized due to sudden
death of parents, national calamities, etc.
21.Who is a street child?
As defined by World Health Organisation[4] street child may be:
- A child of the streets, having no home but the streets.
The family may have abandoned him or her or may have no family members left
alive. Such a child has to struggle for survival and might move from friend
to friend, or live in shelters such as abandoned buildings.
- A child on the street, visiting his or her family regularly.
The child might even return every night to sleep at home, but spends most
days and some nights on the street because of poverty, overcrowding, sexual
or physical abuse at home.
- A part of a street family. Some children live on the
sidewalks or city squares with the rest of their families. Families displaced
due to poverty, natural disasters, or wars may be forced to live on the
streets. They move their possessions from place to place when necessary.
Often the children in these ‘street families’ work on the streets
with other members of their families.
- In institutionalized care, having come from a situation
of homelessness and at risk of returning to a homeless existence.
22.Why children abuse drugs?
Adolescence is a time for trying new things. Children use drugs for many reasons,
including curiosity, loneliness, because it feels good, to reduce stress, to
feel grown up or to fit in. It is difficult to know which child will experiment
and stop and which will develop serious problems.
23.What are the warning signs of child drug abuse?
Warning signs of a potential drug problem include:
- Drop in academic performance
- Lack of interest in personal appearance
- Withdrawal, isolation, depression, fatigue
- Aggressive, rebellious behavior
- Hostility and lack of cooperativeness
- Deteriorating relationships with family
- Change in friends
- Loss of interest in hobbies and/or sports
- Change in eating/sleeping habits
- Evidence of drugs or drug paraphernalia (e.g., needles, pipes, papers,
lighters)
- Physical changes (e.g., running nose not from cold, red eyes, coughing,
wheezing, bruises, needle marks)
24.What to do if your child is abusing drugs?
In a small percentage of cases, parents can work with their own kids to get
them to stop using drugs. This might be easiest when the young person is just
using drugs occasionally to have a good time. And, of course, the earlier you
start talking to your children about drugs, the better the chances are they
won’t become involved with them. If a child reaches the age of 20 without
using alcohol, tobacco or marijuana, the probability is almost zero he or she
will ever develop a serious drug problem.
But if you suspect your child is really trying to self-medicate,
or if you suspect your child is using regularly or even is addicted, you need
to get help right away from the professionals. These are not problems the typical
parents can handle alone. And help is available. There are many voluntary organisations
and professional social workers, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists
well trained to deal with drug use problems. It may well be the beginning of
a lifetime of problems that could be prevented with early intervention.
25.What is HIV?
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the virus that causes AIDS. This virus
may be passed from one person to another when infected blood, semen, or vaginal
secretions come in contact with an uninfected person’s broken skin or
mucous membranes. In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their
baby during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast-feeding. People
with HIV have what is called HIV infection. Some of these people will develop
AIDS as a result of their HIV infection.[5].
26.What is AIDS?
AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
Acquired – means that the disease is not hereditary but develops after
birth from contact with a disease causing agent (in this case, HIV).
Immunodeficiency – means that the disease is characterized by a weakening
of the immune system.
Syndrome – refers to a group of symptoms that collectively indicate or
characterize a disease. In the case of AIDS this can include the development
of certain infections and/or cancers, as well as a decrease in the number of
certain cells in a person’s immune system.
A diagnosis of AIDS is made by a physician using specific clinical or laboratory
standards.
27.What causes AIDS?
AIDS is caused by infection with a virus called human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV). This virus is passed from one person to another through blood-to-blood
and sexual contact. In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their
babies during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast feeding. People
with HIV have what is called HIV infection. Some of these people will develop
AIDS as a result of their HIV infection.
28. Does AIDS affect children?
Yes, children can be both infected and affected by AIDS. Over 2.5 million children
worldwide are now infected with HIV. If HIV continues to spread in countries,
there will be a great increase in deaths among infants and children. It is also
estimated that by the year 2000, 10 million children will have been orphaned
as their parents die of AIDS.
29.How can children and young people be protected from HIV?
Children and adolescents have the right to know how to avoid HIV infection before
they become sexually active. As some young people will have sex at an early
age, they should know about condoms and where they are available. Parents and
schools share the responsibility of ensuring that children understand how to
avoid HIV infection, and learn the importance of tolerant, compassionate and
non-discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS.
30.How does a mother transmit HIV to her unborn child?
An HIV-infected mother can infect the child in her womb through her blood. The
baby is more at risk if the mother has been recently infected or is in a later
stage of AIDS. Transmission can also occur at the time of birth when the baby
is exposed to the mother's blood and to some extent transmission can occur through
breast milk. Transmission from an infected mother to her baby occurs in about
30% of cases.
31.Can HIV be transmitted through breast-feeding?
Yes, the virus has been found in breast milk in low concentrations and studies
have shown that children of HIV-infected mothers can get HIV infection through
breast milk. Breast milk, however, has many substances in it that protect an
infant's health and the benefits of breast-feeding for both mother and child
are well recognized. The slight risk of an infant becoming infected with HIV
through breast-feeding is therefore thought to be outweighed by the benefits
of breast-feeding.
32. What is NICP?
National Initiative for Child Protection (NICP) is a campaign initiated
by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment through National Institute
of Social Defence (NISD) and Childline India Foundation. “To every child
a childhood” is the vision of NICP. It hopes to achieve this by facilitating
a clear understanding of Child Rights and Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection
of Children) Act 2000 among the members of allied systems, NGOs and others.
NISD carries out intensive training and capacity building of different levels
of functionaries working under juvenile justice system in the country.
33. What are the training and capacity building programmes
under NICP by NISD?
Child Protection Division of NISD is responsible for building capacities of
service providers, promoting research and documentation in the areas of child
protection & juvenile justice. The division under NICP implements a series
of long and short term courses on the issues on child protection and juvenile
justice. Some major training and capacity building programmes of NISD under
NICP are:U One Month Certificate Course on Child Protection.
- Training on Counselling Skills for Street Educators
- Specialized orientation and training packages on Juvenile Justice for:
- Police Personnel
- Members of JJB and CWC
- NGO functionaries
- Government
functionaries- Superintendents of homes, probation officers,
Dist.Social welfare officers, other functionaries of state Govte)
- Training
of Trainers.
- Training on specialized care for children affected by HIV/AIDS
- Training on specialized care for children affected by Drug Abuse
- Training on Institutional Management of Adolescents
34. What is CHILDLINE?
CHILDLINE is a 24 hours free phone service initiated by the Ministry of Social
Justice & Empowerment in 1998-99. A child in distress or an adult on his
behalf can access the service by dialing the number 1098 on telephone. It provides
emergency assistance to a child in distress and subsequently based upon the
child’s need, the child is referred to an appropriate organization for
long-term follow up and care. The CHILDLINE Service is currently operational
in 65 cities. To see the presence of CHILDLINE Service, please visit http://www.childlineindia.org.in/childlinepresence.htm
35. What is Allied Systems?
Allied systems include those that come into direct or often daily contact
with children. They have a tremendous role in creating child friendly environment.
The allied systems include Police, Health care system, Judiciary, Juvenile Justice
System, Education System, Transpiration system, Labour department, Media, Department
of Telecommunications, Corporate Sector, Elected representatives and all of
us.
- Child Protection- A handbook for parliamentarians,
UNICEF 2004
- Based on UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
Children
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2003 Columbia University Press.
- A Profile of Street Children - A Training Package on Substance Use, Sexual and Reproductive Health including HIV/AIDS and STDs
by World Health Organisation, Geneva
- Frequently Asked Questions on HIV and AIDS, National
Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/faqs.htm#definition
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