The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in its fresh data has revealed that more than 2,50,000 children live in Child Care Institutions across the country of which close to 60,000 alone are in Tamil Nadu.
Out of a total of 2,56,369 children living in CCIs, the maximum number of 59,548 live in Child Care Institutions in Tamil Nadu while only 90 children live in CCI's in Arunachal Pradesh.
Karnataka has the second-highest with 38,659 children living in CCIs with Andhra Pradesh, Kerala following. The national capital has 3,753 children living in CCIs.
States and UTs with less than 1,000 children living in CCIs are Andaman and Nicobar Islands (513), Chandigarh (300), Mizoram (932), Sikkim (494) and Tripura (776).
In a letter issued earlier this week, the child rights body has directed eight states, including Tamil Nadu to ensure their return to their families, noting that it is the right of every child to grow up in a familial environment.
"It is therefore requested to your good office to immediately produce all the Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) staying in these CCIs before the concerned Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for their immediate repatriation and restoration and provide a soft copy of the detailed list of all the children who have been so repatriated by you in this process along with soft copies of the order passed by CWC in respect of each child so repatriated, to the Commission," NCPCR said in a letter addressed to the District Magistrates/ Collectors of the eight states which have maximum number i.e. 70 p.c. of children living in Child Care Institutions (CCI).
The eight states are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Mizoram, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Meghalaya which have 1.84 lakh children in child care homes out of the total.
It was further recommended by the NCPCR to the District Magistrates that the repatriation and restoration of these children shall be conducted while ensuring strict adherence to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from time to time to contain the spread of COVID-19.
