Carry out census of street children, HC directs govt

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to carry out a census of street children so that they can be provided with basic facilities like education.

The direction came from a division bench presided over by Justice Vidyasagar Kanade and Justice Swapna Joshi while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking better facilities for children living with their inmate mothers in prisons.

This PIL arose out of a report filed in 2014 by Vijay Raghavan, the Project Director of Prayas, on the children of women prisoners to Justice Kanade who was the Chairperson of Juvenile Justice Committee of the Bombay High court.

During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted the suggestions made by Prayas, an organisation, which works for the rehabilitation of children of women prisoners.

After perusing the suggestions, the bench suggested the government to carry out a survey of the children living on streets.

“The State government can carry out a census of the children living on streets... this is important because many of them live there (streets) as their parents would be in jail,” Justice Kanade said.

Speaking about the significance of the census, Justice Kanade said,“This data can be later used by the government for providing amenities like education to them. This will also give them an identity... you can also use the data to later enroll them in the voters list.”

Meanwhile, Hiten Venegaonkar, the counsel appearing for the State, informed the bench that the government has decided to increase financial assistance it provided to women prisoners on their release. He told the bench that as per the new decision, the government has decided to give a total of Rs 25,000 to women prisoners on their release.

However, the bench directed both the government as well as the petitioners to file additional affidavits with details of number of women prisoners across the State and number of children living with them.

The matter will next be heard on October 17.