‘The department of Social Justice and Women and Child Development are always considered as ‘secondary’ in the government which leads to a ‘Waste Paper Basket Approach’ towards certain issues. We need concrete guidelines about various hurdles faced by young adult orphans and also the implementation of Integrated Child Protection Scheme.’’,Exclaimed Dr. Neelam Gorhe, Deputy Chairperson, Maharashtra Legislative Council.
Gorhe was speaking in a programme organized by Pune International Centre (PIC) at YASHADA for unveiling the policy paper about the aftercare of young adult orphans written by Prabhakar Karandikar, Former Divisional Commissioner of Pune and Aditya Charegaonkar, Doctoral Research Scholar, TISS.
Gorhe also said that being a Deputy Chairperson of the legislative council, she looks forward to conduct a discussion with ministers, officials, NGOs and experts to issue these guidelines; where she’ll consider the recommendations of this policy paper by PIC.
Dignitaries including Ajit Nimbalkar, Former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, Dnyaneshwar Mulay, IFS (Retd) and Member, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, Dr. Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, Former Justice, Bombay High Court, Seema Vyas, Member Secretary, Maharashtra Child Rights Protection Commission, Kiran Modi, President, Udayan Care, New Delhi, Dr. Vijay Kelkar, Vice- President, PIC and Prashant Girbane, Director, PIC were present for the programme.
Gorhe said, ‘‘The guidelines must also be formed for the security and protection of all the children living in any institutional care including orphans, special children and children of nomadic tribes. NGOs that are doing good work can be involved in this regard and Dakshata Committees can be formed to avoid any unpleasant incident from occurring to children.’’
Nimbalkar said, ‘‘Government and the society at large possesses equal responsibility of the young adult orphans. Awareness must be created among the society about this fact while making follow-ups with the government regarding consideration of the recommendations of this policy paper presented by PIC.’’
‘‘According to the census of 2011, there were 47.2 Crore children that were in the age group of 0 to 18 years. From this, around 2.5 Crore children are considered to be deprived. Maharashtra constitutes about 10 percent i.e. 25 Lack deprived children that includes partly or fully orphan and homeless children.’’, informed Karandikar. ‘‘This policy paper presents various problems faced by orphans of 18 years of age or older and gives some important recommendations regarding proper identification and documentation of young adult orphans, educational and job related reservations and overall well-being of these young adults after leaving the institutional care.’’, He said.
