Why paper laws and policies are inadequate to bring reforms on child rights

Children may constitute 40 percent of the population, but they are not a vote bank. It is therefore no surprise that child rights reforms are moving forward at a snail’s pace. While there are policies and laws on paper, on the ground, India is still miles away from being the child-friendly nation it committed to be, when it ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Even the money spent for reforms remains poor: in the 25th year of the CRC, child welfare was allocated just 4.64 per cent of the annual budget.

In the South Asian Report on Child Friendliness of Governments of 2013, India tops the list in just one category i.e. legal and policy framework. But overall, it scores lower than countries like Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan and is ranked fourth among eight nations—the other four being Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. India’s gender equality record is particularly dismal; it managed to better only Afghanistan’s score. Obviously, mere enactment of laws has not helped in areas such as education, health and protection.While there are several laws to deal with protection of child rights, the legal remedies needed to deal with violations of these laws are often not in place. For instance, there is no one law that explicitly bans all forms of corporal punishment across settings. Although the Right To Education (RTE) Act bans corporal punishment in schools, it does not talk of a mechanism for its implementation across schools. In June 2014, the CRC committee in its observations on India reiterates “great concern regarding reports of widespread violence, abuse and neglect of children. This includes family settings, alternative care institutions, schools, and the community.” The committee recommends that India should prohibit corporal punishment and “ensure that legal proceedings are systematically initiated against those responsible for ill-treating children.”

As for the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012— experts feel that it is a law that’s skewed against children. It criminalises even consensual sex among those below 18 years, leading to a large number of rape cases being filed against boys mostly by the girls’ parents, who take undue advantage of the Act to end a relationship they don’t approve of. On the other hand, forced sex on married minor girls of ages above 15 by their husbands is condoned since the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 does not recognise marital rape. The CRC committee has pointed out that the non-criminalisation of sexual abuse of minor married girls above 15 “is inconsistent” with POCSO. It has asked the government to ensure that sexual abuses in such cases are also criminalised.  

With reports of sexual abuse of children on the rise in schools and homes across the country, the CRC committee has asked the government to establish mechanisms, procedures and guidelines to ensure mandatory reporting of all cases of child sexual abuse as well as necessary measures to ensure proper investigation, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators.

With surrogacy on the rise in India, there are also a few concerns regarding a child’s rights in such an arrangement. What if a child is rejected due to issues such as disability, gender or complexion? The CRC committee has asked the government to ensure that the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill (or any other legislation to be developed) helps regulate surrogacy and prevent its abuse. Illegal adoptions must also be stopped with appropriate legislation.

There are concerns about the Child Labour Act, 1986 too. In the absence of a national database on the types and extent of child labour, which occurs not just in informal sectors such as domestic work, but also in hazardous ones including mining and quarry work, it may be difficult to eliminate this national shame.  While thousands of children continue to be employed, there are no regular inspections, and thus prosecutions and convictions are abysmally low. According to Census 2011 data, only 1061 convictions were reported in 2013 despite more than one crore children engaged as labourers. In addition, the rehabilitation of rescued children also lacks any comprehensive strategy or plan.

One conclusion that emerges clearly from the current scenario is that if child rights is to be given the importance it deserves, the government needs to go beyond enacting laws and drive change at the ground level.

The author is CEO, CRY – Child Rights and You