New Delhi [India], September 26 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a plea of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights challenging the recent amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 by which some serious offences against children have been made non-cognizable.

New Delhi [India], March 31 (ANI): The Kejriwal government has set up a field task force for the rehabilitation of homeless children in the national capital, the Delhi government said on Thursday.

New Delhi Jan 31 PTI An inquiry panel set up by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights to identify the challenges faced by children in conflict with the law about legal aid services has sought submissions from stakeholders over the matterThe deadline for written submissions is February 12Considering that several organizations and individuals have reached out to the commission asserting proclivity to assist the inquiry panel the commission has decided to formally invite written submissions it saidThe Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR also said selected organizations and individuals may be requested to depose before the inquiry panelThe panel had sought submissions from organizations and individuals involved in legal aid work for children and adults advocates and NGOs working for children in conflict with the law advocates with experience of representing such children families of such children and the children themselves existing or former juvenile justice board members and legal aid lawyers According to DCPCR the inquiry involves assessment of awareness of the legal proceedings and status of the cases and inquiry among children alleged to be in conflict with the law and residing in observation homes places of safety and special homes in DelhiThe inquiry panel will look into the duration of their stay in these institutions along with the reasons and will identify the issues and challenges experienced by such children in securing bail or release and their experiences with the police It will also assess the demographic profile of the family of such childrenThe inquiry panel is headed by Justice Madan B Lokur retired and has three other members -- Sunieta Ojha Sneha Singh and Ajay Verma PTI SLB NSD NSD

New Delhi Jan 25 PTI The Supreme Court on Tuesday left it for the Centre to take a considered view on the suggestions given by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR for the need to provide effective access to vaccination and targeted tracking of pregnant women and lactating mothers in case of Adverse Event Following Immunization AEFI A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjiv Khanna said that the court is conscious of the fact that the suggestions which have been made on behalf of DCPCR are issues of policy but these have emanated from a statutory body and hence can be considered with the same sense of cooperation by the Centre as has been during the hearing of the petition It said that the three suggestions which have been made by the DCPCR would undoubtedly require the involvement of application of mind and domain knowledge by experts in the area and the court may not be in the best position to make decisions unaided by an expert determination The bench said We are of the view that having regard to the inclination shown by the union government it would be appropriate the three ideas which have been outlined earlier are duly placed before the concerned expert group as set out in the affidavit of the Centre so that the suggestions can be factored in at the policy-making level at an appropriate stage The top court said that it appreciates the steps taken by the DCPCR in moving these proceedings and equally a sense of responsibility with which suggestions have been made and discussed both by DCPCR and the Union government during these proceedings We leave it open to the Union of India to take a considered view after evaluating the suggestions we dispose of the petitions the bench said During the hearing advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for DCPCR submitted that the affidavit of the Centre is substantially concerned with the issues which have been raised in the petition with the object of ensuring that vaccination for pregnant women and lactating mothers is taken up on priority The bench noted that the decision to facilitate vaccination for pregnant women was announced on July 2 2021 whereas the decision for vaccination of lactating mothers was taken a little earlier on May 19 2021 The court has been apprised of the fact that taking these decisions the government has been guided by its experts group as well as the consensus which has evolved at the international level through the World Health Organization WHO it said Grover highlighted concerns that persist according to her and need to be addressed at a suitable level by the government She said that the women who visit the vaccination centre may not necessarily be aware of the need to make such a voluntary declaration and if she is not duly informed by the personnel at the vaccination centre the recording of the status either as a pregnant woman or a lactating mother may remain to be incorporated in the datasheet She said instead that if the CoWIN portal at the time of registration can be suitably modified to incorporate a declaration this would facilitate the entire process particularly the subsequent monitoring of the health of the pregnant woman or lactating mother as the case may be Grover further suggested to upgrade and support the surveillance which has been instituted by the government for monitoring AEFI targeted tracking of pregnant women and lactating mothers can be considered to further bolster the process of monitoring She emphasised that when adequate data sets become available the publication of data will enhance the confidence of the process of vaccination Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for Centre responded to the suggestion submitted that each of the three suggestions has been carefully evaluated by the expert group of the Union government She said that in the ongoing process where decisions are continuously evolving the government has certain concerns over the implementation of the suggestions at the present stage but is open to further deliberations within the expert bodies which exist at the present point of time Bhati said that with the process of walk-in registration the registration in the CoWIN portal has been rendered of subsidiary importance but added that the reason why it was believed that a verbal declaration at the time of vaccination would suffice was to ensure that no person is dissuaded from seeking vaccination by introducing an additional column at the time of registration She said that there exists a robust mechanism for targeted tracking which has been put in place by the Centre and as regards the publication of the data it has been submitted that at this stage any such proposal may be premature but the union government is duly seized of the issue Bhati added that the raw data may not be appropriate and is being published after due scrutiny and assessment by expert agenciesIn its affidavit the Centre has said that the pregnant and lactating women are informed about the risks of COVID-19 during pregnancy as also the benefits and likely side effects of the vaccination as per the advisory and Standard Operating Procedures SOP It has said that the guidelines issued for monitoring of adverse events following the COVID-19 vaccine allow for reporting of any suspected adverse event irrespective of the time interval between the day of vaccination and the day of onset of symptoms PTI MNL MNL RKS RKS

New Delhi Jan 21 PTI The Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights on Friday served a notice to North MCD following a complaint by AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi alleging that multi-level parking was being built on the land allotted to two primary schools The Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights DCPCR in its notice asked officials concerned to submit all records pertaining to the matter and file a detailed submission within seven days It further said that it is in receipt of a complaint from Karol Bagh MLA Vishesh claiming that the North Delhi Municipal Corporation NDMC was building a multi-level parking complex on the land allotted to two MCD primary schools -- MCD Primary Boys School and MCD Primary Girls School -- in Karol Bagh The Commission said it has taken cognizance of the matter and issued notices to Director Education NorthM CD and Deputy Commissioner MCD Karol Bagh Zone The complaint further submits that the destruction of these two schools is completely against the norms of the RTE Act that states children should have access to primary schools within the radius of 1 km Also children as young as 6-year-old in class 1 are forced to travel for more than 3-5 kms because of the destruction of these schools read the notice PTI SLB SRY

New Delhi [India], January 18 (ANI): The Centre has told the Supreme Court that all pregnant women and lactating mothers who avail of COVID-19 vaccination are made aware of the likely benefits and side-effects of the vaccination.

New Delhi Sep 20 PTI The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to the Centre to declare pregnant as well as lactating women as high-risk category and be given priority for COVID-19 vaccinationA bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna issued notice to the Centre on the plea of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR and sought its response within two weeksAdvocate Vrinda Grover appearing for DCPCR said the Centre has issued some guidelines for vaccination of pregnant women and lactating mothers but now it is being stated that there may be some adverse effect on them due to vaccinationShe said there is a need to declare women in these conditions as high-risk categories and since people are dealing with a virus which they do not know much about there is a need to conduct continuous research on the effects of vaccination on themThere is also a need to create a platform for registry of pregnant and lactating mothers for proper monitoring she saidThe top court noted that the petition instituted by DCPCR under Article 32 was filed in May earlier this year amid the second wave of COVID-19 and subsequently operational guidelines were issued for vaccination of pregnant women and lactating mothersThe bench said it is issuing notice to the Union of India and seeking its response in two weeksThe top court also sought assistance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to apprise the court about the policy which has been formulated for the vaccination of pregnant women and lactating mothers and what further steps could be taken PTI MNL ABA SA

New Delhi [India], September 20 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a plea of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), Delhi government, seeking additional safeguards for pregnant and lactating women like continuous monitoring of those receiving COVID-19 vaccination.

New Delhi Sep 18 PTI The Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights DCPCR has developed an early warning system to help government schools take measures in case a student is absent for long durations The technology based mechanism will help government schools in tracking attendance of students to prevent incidences of dropouts and also aid children in case they are in a high risk situation If a child is absent for more than seven days at a stretch or the attendance is merely 30 per cent in a month the system will send SMS to his or her parents in Hindi which will convey the message that the school is missing the student and waiting for them to return DCPCR Chairman Anurag Kundu said The next day the parents would receive an Interactive Voice Response IVR call where a recorded message will urge the student to go back to school On the third day the parents will receive a call from the teacher inquiring about the reason for the childs prolonged absence from school After learning about the reason the teacher will key in detail in the portal The child will be provided assistance by the school and in case the reason is major for instance death of a parent or both the parents the DCPCR and other bodies will step in for assisting the child Kundu said they started working on this project in October and it was supposed to be rolled out in April but the second wave of coronavirus deferred their plans He explained that if a child is absent for a prolonged period it is an indicator that they are facing a huge crisis at home which is affecting their studies The crisis may be loss of income of parents early marriage child labour illness of parents disability etc he said This system will detect the early sign which is long duration of absence from school and help the authorities to work on it before the situation gets worse he added Till now 250 principals across two districts have undergone an orientation programme on the system The system is going to keep a track of the physical classes PTI SLB MGA MGA