Directs Dharashiv Child Welfare Committee to monitor the kids, submit reports
Panaji : The High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed the repatriation of four children rescued in a child begging case to their native homes in Dharashiv district (formerly Osmanabad) in Maharashtra, while ordering continued monitoring of their welfare after their return.
The court noted that the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Goa, had passed formal release and restoration orders for each of the four children. It also recorded that undertakings had been obtained from the parents to ensure the children’s well-being upon their return.
The children are to be produced before the CWC in Dharashiv immediately after reaching their destination.
“Considering that the children have now been given to their parents and there is a clear order under which they would be repatriated to their homes in Dharashiv District, we request CWC, Dharashiv, to ensure that the orders of CWC, Goa are followed up and there are time-to-time reports, which are submitted to this court reporting the social information about these children,” said a Division Bench comprising Justices Valmiki Menezes and Hiten Venegavkar.
The additional government advocate informed the court that the Department of Women and Child Development, Goa, would bear the full cost of train travel for the children and their parents from Goa to Maharashtra.
The High Court directed that a social information report, along with a report from the Dharashiv CWC, be submitted
within two months. It also directed that an individual childcare plan, as required under Rule 19 of the Juvenile Justice Rules, be prepared and placed before the court.
The Bench appreciated the coordinated efforts of the CWC, local NGOs and childcare institutions. It also acknowledged Advocate Shweta Parulekar for providing legal aid to the parents and psychologist Dr Anuradha Kakodkar for counselling the children and submitting reports to the court.
The matter has been posted for further hearing on July 21.
The High Court had earlier appointed a child psychologist after observing that the children were severely traumatised and had not met their parents since being placed in institutional care on May 13.
