Bhubaneswar: It seems that the authorities have no respect for the basic fundamental rights of children needing care as per the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015.
The authorities who deal with such children often forget that the Act has clearly instructed to keep the identity of the children secret. But very often they are found revealing the photos and addresses of the minor victims of child labour and sexual abuse.
Human rights activist Akhand recently filed an appeal before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the district administration of Bhadrak for posting the images of child labourers rescued by the police and district officials on the official twitter handle of the Bhadrak district administration a few days back.
The activist alleged in his complaint, “The district administration of Bhadrak recently published the images of these rescued children violating rules on child labour. It revealed the identity of the child labourers rescued by the police and district officials. In August 2019 (August 4, 7, 10, 13 and 20), police, district officials and others posed with the rescued children before the media and took photographs with the children. The official twitter handle of the district administration of Bhadrak also carried the picture.”
The twitter accounts of the Department of Women and Child Development (@WCDOdisha) and the twitter account of the SP of Bhadrak (@SpBhadrak) were also tagged in the posts of the district administration.
The JJ Act, 2015 says in Chapter II, Section 3 and subsection XI that “Every child has the right to protection of his/her privacy and confidentiality by all means and throughout the judicial process.”
Chapter IX of the same Act says. “No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or audio-visual media or other forms of communication regarding any inquiry or investigation or judicial procedure shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with the law or a child in need of protection or a child victim or witness of a crime or shall allow the picture of any such child to be published.”
There should be valid reasons behind the disclosure of the identity of a child or it should be in the interest of the child. The Act also holds that the disclosure of identity is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or fine which may amount to Rs 2 lakh or both.”
The rights activist urged the NHRC to ask the Chief Secretary of Odisha and the DGP to probe into the matter and take action against those responsible for the lapse which has been occurring again and again.
He also said that the police is only rescuing the child labourers, but has not taken any action against persons who had employed the children.