The Supreme Court today pulled up the West Bengal government for having only two child welfare committees (CWCs) working in 23 districts with reports suggesting that children were being sold and trafficked in the state.
Having only two CWCs operational in 23 districts of West Bengal is "not fair" to the children, the top court said and asked why it had not taken steps to fill up the vacancies in the CWCs.
"You have issues of babies being sold in West Bengal. You see how serious this problem is. Babies are being sold there. It is a very, very serious problem. Somebody has to wake up at some point of time," a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur told the counsel appearing for West Bengal.
"Reports say that there is trafficking of children in West Bengal. If trafficking is going on, these children need to be looked after," the bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, said.
When the counsel for the state said interviews were going on to fill up the vacancies in CWCs, the bench asked why was it not done earlier. "It is not that this has suddenly came out of the blue. This is absolutely wrong," the bench retorted.
The issue cropped up when the bench was hearing a matter relating to exploitation of children living in orphanages.
The bench asked the counsel for the Centre it appeared that not a single CWC was operational in some districts of West Bengal.
Responding to the query, the Centre's counsel said that CWCs were working in only two out of the 23 districts there.
"How can only two CWCs look after 23 districts," the bench shot back.
The West Bengal counsel said that process of interviews for CWCs was going on and within a week or two, some more CWCs would become operational in the state.
"You cannot say that it will be done within one or two weeks. We do not know how many children will be trafficked by then," the bench said.
When the state's counsel said other agencies were also there to look into the issue, the bench asked, "Why do you have other committees when the law does not permit it? It is not fair to the children. The responsibility is of the CWC and not of other agencies".
During the hearing, the bench also expressed shock over the discrepancy in two surveys showing a difference of around two lakh minors residing in child care institutions (CCIs) across the country.
The top court was told that as per the survey conducted by an organisation in 2016-17 on the direction of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the number of children living in CCIs was around 4.73 lakh while the data filed in the court by the government in March this year says that the number was about 2.61 lakh.
An advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, while referring to a matter related to condition of widow homes at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh which was disposed of recently by the apex court, said that somebody was asking her as to why the top court took around 10 years to decide the case.
"What about separation of powers in the Constitution of India. You tell them about it," the bench observed and posted the matter for further hearing on August 28.
The bench noted the submissions of the amicus that committees at the national and state level could deal with the issue of CCIs so as to prevent recurrence of incidents like alleged rape and sexual abuse of minor girls and women at shelter homes in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in Uttar Pradesh.
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