Open Access Research Article
CHILD RIGHTS AND THEIR LEGAL PROTECTION
Published Paper
Article Details
CHILD RIGHTS AND THEIR LEGAL PROTECTION
AUTHORED BY -
AISHWARYA KRISHNAN KUTTY.
& RUTUJA RAJENDRAKUMAR PHEGADE.
1. Abstract:
India marching
towards a USD 5 trillion
economy sees many challenges that could pose to
be an obstacle in this aspiration. All over the world when children remain the focus group of human development a
glaring disparity prevails in India. With an HDI value of 0.633,
India ranked 132 out of 191 countries in the
2021 human development index,
according to a report released
by the United Nations Development Program. This is due
to social inequality and a large segment
bereft of opportunities.
The researchers take the journey
of inquiry to assess the level of awareness of the
educated people of society with respect to child rights
and child menace
in society. There has been a large body of research
on studies relating
to adult begging
but very few on child
begging.
An attempt
is made in this research endeavor to assess societal initiatives to overcome
this issue of child beggary.
Keywords:
child begging, child rights, level of awareness, societal initiatives.
2. Introduction:
Children are the most vulnerable part of our society. It is the right of every child
to have a positive, nurturing and healthy childhood. Only then will they be
able to reach their full potential. Children are the future
of a country and it is very
crucial for both the government and the society to protect and take care of their
well being to ensure that they
become fruitful individuals and contribute positively towards the society.
But sometimes children have to take up the role of an adult and become
their own guardian. One such group of children are child beggars.
It is estimated that 3 lakh children
in India are forced
to beg. Sometimes it’s their parents
itself that force them to beg. Whereas sometimes these children become
victims of child
begging rackets where they are tortured, exploited and taken advantage of. In some cases, these children are abandoned by their own parents
and they have no one by their
side. Under such circumstances, these children have to resort
to begging in order to survive.
As per Census data taken in 2011 by the
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment,
there are 45,296 children between
the age group
of 0 – 14 years
are engaged in the act of begging.
|
|
As per the information available on the website
of Registrar
General of India,
State-wise details of
number of children
(Age up to 14 years) engaged in the act of Begging.
These ?gures are based on Census 2011.
In order to curtail this problem,
government as well as members of society
play an important role. In our research
we are focusing on four categories of members of society – teachers, social workers, parents
and students.
Legal framework for child beggars:
1)
CHILDLINE:
Childline India Foundation is a non – governmental organization that operates
a telephone helpline number called CHILDLINE 1098.
Childline India Foundation (CIF) is the nodal
agency of the Union Ministry of Women
and Child Development. This is the country’s ?rst toll – free number
for distressed children living in streets. This number operates across 602 cities and districts covering over 81% of the Indian
landscape. CHIDLINE
operates centralized call centers from 6 regional locations.
2)
Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959: Under this act, de?nition of a child
is a boy under the age of 16 and a girl under
the age of 18. A child under the age of 5 must be referred to a children’s court. As per section 11 of the Bombay
Prevention of Begging Act 1959, “Whoever
employs or causes,
any person to solicit or receive alms, or whoever
or causing having
the custody, charge
or care of a child, connives at or encourages the persons to employment or the causing of a child to solicit, or receive alms or whoever
uses another person
as an exhibit for the purpose
of begging, shall on conviction
be punished purposes of with
imprisonment for a term which
may extend to three years
but which shall not be”
3)
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: As per Section 2 (14) (ii) of the JJ Act,2015 “a child who is found working in contravention of labour laws for the time being in force or is found begging, or living
on the street is included as a ‘child
in need of care
and protection’, among
others”. As per Section 76 of JJ Act,
“whoever employs or
uses any child for the purpose of
begging or causes any
child to beg shall
be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to ?ve years and
shall also
be liable to ?ne of one lakh
rupees”
4)
Integrated Child Protection Scheme: 2009: This scheme covers various schemes for
children in need for care and protection and children in con?ict with law.
5)
Railways Act, 1960: As per section
144(2) “If any person begs in any railway carriage or upon a railway station, he shall be liable
for punishment”
6)
The children
Act, 1960: As per section
42 of this act “Whoever
employs or uses any child for the purposes of begging or causes any child to beg shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with ?ne, or with both”
7)
Indian
Penal Code, 1860: As per section
363A of IPC “Whoever kidnaps any minor or, not being the lawful guardian of a minor, obtains the custody
of the minor, in order that such
minor may be employed or used for the purpose of begging shall be punishable with imprisonment of
either description for a term
which may extend to ten
years, and shall also be liable to ?ne”
3. Research Problem:
Child begging
has become an increasingly rampant
issue in the Indian society. The Indian government has constitutionalized several
laws and policies regarding child begging.
This research paper focuses mainly on two things-how
aware people of laws and policies against child
begging and how involved people are in reducing this menace.
4. Research Gap Analysis:
Studies on public
awareness about child begging are very
scanty. Majority of the studies
done so far focuses on government’s role in reducing child begging
but rarely any studies have been done to measure
the societies’ involvement.
Also, multiple
studies have been done centering different geographical areas
but
there are very few such studies focusing on Mumbai.
5. Objectives:
1. To check whether people are aware of various policies and laws regarding child begging
2. To check the awareness and usage of Childline number.
3. To check how involved people are in reducing child begging.
4. Research Methodology:
The present
study is qualitative in nature
and is conducted on the basis of
primary and secondary data. The primary data used in his research is collected
using surveys. Secondary data is obtained
from research papers,
government websites and online
articles. The data is collected from 4 categories of people: teachers, students, parents, and social workers. A total 100 responses were received.
6. Data Analysis And Interpretation:
The google from was circulated among
teachers, students, parents
and social workers. 100 people responded
to this google
form. Among these 100 respondents, 30% were teachers, 20% were social workers, 30% were parents and remaining
20% were students.
The above
question option was given in a checkbox
format i.e. one respondent
can select more than one option.
Majority of
the respondents (52) would give these children food, clothes and other necessities. 40 respondents said they would ignore if a child comes to them to beg whereas 42 respondents occasionally give these children
money. Only 6 respondents would always give money
to these child beggars.
The responses received unveil that a staggering 44% of people never
ask these children about
their reason behind
begging. Half of the respondents (50%) would sometimes ask these children
their reason behind begging whereas
only 6% of people always ask these children
their reason behind begging.
The above
question option was given in a checkbox
format i.e. one respondent can select more than one option.
45 respondents didn’t enquire anything
about these children. 30 respondents wanted
to know their reason
behind wanting the money. 23 respondents enquired
about their family background whereas
20 respondents chose to enquire about their educational status. 16 respondents offered
to help these children and are willing
to approach the authorities for them. Another
16 respondents were concerned about
whether anyone was forcing
these children to beg. 11 respondents checked
whether if these children
were in danger. Only a small percentage of 9 respondents enquired whether if they had a
permanent place to stay.
|
1098 correctly answered
|
22%
|
|
NA (not
aware)
|
78%
|
Out of 100 people
who responded, only 22 people
were able to answers the Childline
number correctly. Remaining 78 respondents are not aware
of the Childline number.
|
Boy 16 and girl
18 answered correctly
|
14%
|
|
NA (not
aware)
|
86%
|
Out of 100 people responded, a small percentage of only 14% people were able to answer the ages of boy and girl correctly. Remaining 86% respondents don’t know the answer
to this question.
|
Child in need for
care and protection answered correctly
|
8%
|
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NA (not
aware)
|
92%
|
As per the responses
received from 100 people, only
8% of people who responded
were able to answer
the question correctly.
Out of 100
people who responded to the above
question only 23% of respondents are aware of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme. A vast majority
of respondent are not aware of this scheme.
|
|
Children in need for care and protection answered correctly
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7%
|
|
93%
|
|
NA (n?t aware)
|
The above
question was answered
by only 7 people correctly out of the 100 people
who responded. Remaining didn’t know the answer to this question. This shows that majority
of the respondents are not aware of
the main emphasis of
Integrated Child Protection Scheme.
As per the above
data out of 100, 22 respondents are aware of Childline number
but this data reveals
that only 4 respondents out of 100 respondents have used the Childline
number.
A minority
of only 17% of people
feel the government is doing a good job at protecting these children. The majority
of 83% people feel like the government could do more for
these children by introducing more policies and creating more awareness about
the existing policies.
The above
question option was given in a checkbox
format i.e. one respondent
can select more than one option.
65 people
are aware of police station.
The second option after police
station that people are aware of is the railway department. 39 people chose this option.
27 people are not aware of any of
the above-mentioned platforms
used for reporting
child beggars. 32 people seems to be aware of the
child welfare committee. 13 people are aware of trackchild@nic.in
whereas only 9 people are aware of trackthemissingchild.gov.in
A small
portion of only 4 people
are aware of no more missing Facebook
page.
The above
question option was given in a checkbox
format i.e. one respondent
can select more than one option.
Since 85 respondents chose the none option, majority
of
the people have not
personally used these platforms. 9 respondents have used police station to report
child begging where as 6 respondents have ?led a report
against child begging through the railway department. No respondent has used trackchild@nic.in. 1 respondent has used trackthemisssingchild.gov.in and 1 respondent has used no more
missing Facebook page to make a report.
7.
Conclusion.
The laws and policies
in place to address
child begging are robust, but their
effectiveness depends largely on public awareness and active participation. Legal intervention must go hand in
hand with community mobilization and awareness campaigns, such as
promoting the use of the 1098
Childline number, informing the public of existing child protection laws, and ensuring
that citizens know how to report
cases of child begging.
With greater legal awareness and the active involvement of the community, child begging can be signi?cantly reduced, and the rights of children can be
better protected.
1. Yatharatha Foundation v. Union
of India (2023):
In September 2023,
the Delhi High Court directed the Delhi government to submit a detailed status
report on the rehabilitation of children rescued from begging. The court emphasized the need for comprehensive measures to address
child begging, including the assessment of rehabilitation centers' long-term impact
on the children in their care.
8. Suggestion:
People’s
mindset of normalizing child begging should be changed. More people should be
encouraged to take actions against
child begging.
Schools
and colleges can conduct seminars and workshops regarding
various laws and policies against
child begging to make the youth more aware of this issue.
In public places such as railways
stations, junctions, highways,
malls, busses, etc. installation of banners, posters, etc. can be done to make people
more aware of this issue.
In trains,
busses, railway stations, etc. announcements can be made about dialing 1098 Childline number
to report cases of
child begging. This will make more and
more people aware of the existence
of this number.
Banners and posters can also be made and installed in public places
to increase the awareness.
Government
can make advertisements to educate and increase awareness
among people on the existence of various laws and polices
and Childline number.
9. References:
https://Ij.Maharashtra.gov.in
https://pib.gov.in
https://wcdhry.gov.in
https://indianrailways.gov.in
https://wcd.nic.in
https://indiankanoon.org
https://wikipedia.org
Article Information
CHILD RIGHTS AND THEIR LEGAL PROTECTION
Authors: AISHWARYA KRISHNAN KUTTY., RUTUJA RAJENDRAKUMAR PHEGADE
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2025/03/11
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Access Open Access
- License CC 4.0
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