7 vacancies in DCPCR 3 years on as Delhi eyes child protection panels in all schools
The government has issued directions to set up panels in all 5,633 schools across the Capital by the end of July.
Earlier in February, the High Court had pulled up the Delhi government’s Women and Child Development, with a division bench orally remarking that the state should repeal the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act if it continues to progress at a snail’s pace. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna/ representative) Even as the Delhi government on Monday announced that it will set up child protection committees in all 5,363 schools across the Capital, it has failed to fill seven vacancies in the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), a statutory body on matters of child rights, over the last three years, that is since July 2023, drawing the High Court ire repeatedly.
According to a press release issued by the government, Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday chaired a high-level review meeting at Raj Niwas where directions were issued that child protection initiatives should become a permanent and integral part of the functioning of all institutions. Directions were also issued to constitute committees in all 5,633 schools across Delhi by the end of July. These include schools run by the government, MCD, and private schools.
Earlier in February, the High Court had pulled up the Delhi government’s Women and Child Development, with a division bench orally remarking that the state should repeal the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act if it continues to progress at a snail’s pace.
The state at the time had sought time till April this year to complete the appointments and justified that the time taken so far has been essential “in the interest of ensuring transparency, fairness” in the process of appointments. But, in April, the state sought further extension by six weeks to issue notification of selected candidates.
However, according to the latest affidavit filed on July 2 by the state, the appointments have not been made, submitting that the department is “making all earnest and necessary efforts to complete the appointment process at the earliest.”
Advocate Prabhsahay Kaur, who has been assisting the court as amicus curiae in the case, referring to the three-judge bench SC judgment of 2018 in the case of Sampurna Behura vs Union of India, told The Indian Express, “The judgment had clearly emphasised on the importance of the Commissions for Child Protection — both national and state-level — even to monitor the implementation of POCSO Act and the Juvenile Justice Act. The judgment had also emphasised that we cannot drown the voice of children in the din of governance.”
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