The Odisha Government has extended the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for children growing with incarcerated parents in the State.
Taking the socio-emotional development needs of children of incarcerated parents into account, the State government has come up with guidelines asking District Collectors to identify one nodal anganwadi centre (AWC) nearest to each prison for the extension of these facilities.
“In case more children are housed in any prison, temporary AWCs as per jail manual will be set up. A worker from an existing AWC in the neighbourhood with lesser children will be considered for attending to the temporary AWC,” says the guideline.
The Orissa High Court recently directed the government to formulate a detailed scheme for children of prisoners. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice A. K. Mohapatra had noted that there were around 59 children in jails in Odisha.
The guideline has been framed keeping both children aged 0-6 years growing with incarcerated parents, and children staying outside jails but with their parents incarcerated for a minimum period of 60 days.
“Children on attaining the age of six years would be placed with guardian or remaining parent with the consent of the mother. Otherwise, the child may be produced before the nearest Child Welfare Committee, a quasi-judiciary body, for rehabilitation,” the guideline says.
“Children residing outside jails will be produced before the nearest or concerned CWC. If found child in need of care and protection (CNCP), the child will be covered under different institutional and non-institutional care mechanisms available in the State,” it said.
The guideline emphasises elaborate arrangements for the safety and monitoring of children of imprisoned parents. The District Magistrates would be the grievance redressal authority for these children, it says.
The National Human Rights Commission had directed all States to submit statistics showing how many children were with their mothers in jails under their jurisdiction but without facilities that are necessary for their psychological and physical growth as well as educational upbringing while taking cognisance of The Hindu’s report ‘46 children are behind bars in Odisha for no crime of theirs’ published on May 20, 2018.
