1,339 children's home not registered, NCPCR data reveals

More than 1,300 Child Care Institutions in the country are not registered under the Juvenile Justice Act, the latest data from the national agency for safeguarding child rights shows, making children vulnerable to multiple kind of abuses.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) data come in the backdrop of reports of a Missionaries of Charity shelter home in-charge in Ranchi allegedly selling a baby.

The NCPCR data reveals that of the 1,339 unregistered Child Care Institutions, 1165 are operating in Kerala alone. The state has 26 registered CCIs.

According to the data, there are 5,850 registered CCIs in the country as of July 11, and if unregistered ones are counted, the total number of children's homes crosses the 8,000-mark.

Besides Kerala, some other states also have unregistered CCIs with Maharashtra reporting 110 such homes, Manipur 13, Tamil Nadu (9), Goa (8), Rajasthan (4) and Nagaland (2).

After the Ranchi case, Nobel Laureate and children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi had demanded that all Child Care Institutions be registered immediately.

NCPCR member Yashwant Jain said the child rights body had asked states on multiple occasions to ensure that all CCIs under their jurisdiction are registered.

"Several states have responded with alacrity but some of them did not do so," he said.

The NCPCR data also shows that there are 2,32,937 children in all the CCIs -- registered and the unregistered ones -- in the country.