West Bengal: NCPCR chairperson accuses State Government of deliberately violating child rights

Child rights body NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo has alleged that in the past few years, it has been observed that the West Bengal Government is not only “ignorant” of the rights of children but is also “deliberately violating them.”

Speaking to media, after submitting a special report on ‘child protection’ in West Bengal to President Droupadi Murmu on March 19, Kanoonga said, “… In the past few years, it has been observed that the West Bengal Government is not only ignorant towards child rights but is also deliberately violating child rights….”.

“In West Bengal, the government is running and giving money to unregistered children’s homes…,” he alleged. The child panel chairperson alleged that the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) has “violated” the regulations in the POCSO Act multiple times.

“We have also made the Parliament of India aware of it… The Chief Minister of Bengal has violated the regulations in the POCSO Act multiple times… We informed the Parliament of all incidents violating the child’s rights and we gave a copy of that report to the President of India (submitted on March 19)…,” he said.

As per the report, it has been widely reported that child trafficking is a growing menace in the state of West Bengal. Children, especially girls, are being trafficked to different places, the report said.

“However, it has been found that West Bengal is running a parallel system of dealing with what are being called ‘destitute children’ in the state. These institutions are called ‘Cottage Homes’ and are being run under the Cottage Scheme, a scheme for the welfare of children in need of care and protection under the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal,” the report said.

He said that during their investigation, “they found many children injured in the crude bomb blasts.” “For example, we found 40 cases where the children were injured in the crude bomb blasts. Now why are these blasts taking place? Children get injured when they are playing and even lose their lives,” he said.

“We collected information in this matter. We approached the Border Security Force after the State Government did not cooperate with us. BSF told us that a committee had been formed to deal with such issues. But the Chief Secretary of Bengal is not convening a meeting,” the child rights chief said.

(with inputs from ANI)