Fill vacancies at remand homes soon: High court

Gujarat high court has ordered the social justice and empowerment department of the state government to fill over 500 vacant posts in over 100 destitute home across the state. The bench has also set the deadline of three months to initiate the process of recruitment with an aim to improve the conditions of inmates in juvenile homes, observation homes, nari niketans and special homes.

A division bench of chief justice KS Radhakrishnan and justice Akil Kureshi issued the order on Monday during hearing of two petitions seeking uplift of destitute children, boys and women living in such places. "All the welfare and reformative legislature for children, women and disabled can be implemented only if the state has sufficient number of employees in various homes," the order said.

The high court was hearing a suo motu petition and a PIL filed in 1995. The high court had then converted a letter written by a woman to the chief justice narrating bad conditions at destitute homes, into a suo moto petition. 

After that, Lok Adhikar Sangh, a civil rights organisation, had filed a PIL following a report published in a national magazine exposing the poor condition of children in the remand home in  Ahmedabad.

During the hearing of the petitions, senior counsel Girish Patel with counsel Anand Yagnik submitted that the inhabitants of the destitute homes were facing problems as many as 524 posts against sanctioned strength of 900 were lying vacant in different destitute homes. "Children, girls, widows, forsaken ladies, disabled are facing problems of education, health and rehabilitation due to lack of staff and proper counselling,'' they submitted.

"When the state takes the custody of a child, a woman or a disabled person, they have to be looked after by the staff in the protective custody. In the absence of required number of staff in such homes, the state can't fulfil the statutory commitment of looking after this inmates," said Anand Yagnik, court commissioner of a committee earlier appointed by the high court to look into the issue.

"Non-appointment of probation officers or sympathetic staff, who are a bridge between destitute, police and society, is also affecting the rehabilitation of the such persons," Yagnik said.

The high court had earlier appointed a committee to address the issue. The members of the committee at different points of time had visited various destitute homes and submitted to the high court reports on the prevailing bad situation at such homes.

"Earlier the scope of suo motu action and PIL was limited for the remand home of Ahmedabad only, but after conclusions put by committee, the high court expanded the scope of action for all destitute homes across the state," said Patel, counsel for Lok Adhikar Sangh.