In an effort to curb discrimination against minors suffering from communicable diseases, government is all set to amend an act providing for the care and protection of children.
In an effort to curb discrimination against minors suffering from communicable diseases, government is all set to amend an act providing for the care and protection of children.
The draft bill to amend the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act, seeks to prohibit authorities from sending minor children to mental asylums, and separate treatment for those suffering from diseases such as leprosy and TB.
According to the amendments, instead of sending such children to mental asylums, the authorities will have to ensure their proper treatment and such persons would not be allowed to be abandoned in asylums.
The provisions of the new draft bill state that terms such as "mental disorder" should not be used while referring to children.
The Union law ministry, with which the amendment is under consideration, has advised removal of a section from the JJ Act, which provided for a juvenile suffering from any communicable diseases to be treated separately.
According to the new draft, "Section 48 (2) which states that a juvenile or a child found to be suffering from leprosy, sexually transmitted disease, Hepatitis B, open cases of Tuberculosis and such diseases and is of unsound mind, should be dealt with separately through referral services, shall be omitted."
Minors suffering from other diseases will no more be segregated, but will be treated by the authorities.
In its amendment proposed to section 58 of the Act, it has stated: "If it appears to the competent authority that any juvenile or child kept in a special home, is mentally ill or addicted to alcohol or drugs, leading to behavioural changes, he may be sent to a psychiatric hospital or nursing home."
As of now, the Act provides for such children to be removed to be kept at other centres for the entire period of their stay at the juvenile home.
This is for the second time that the Juvenile Justice Act, also referred to as JJ Act will be amended. The Act, which came into being in 1986, was earlier amended in 2000.
The amendments were mooted to keep the Act in sync with the UN Charter on Child Rights.
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