Courts to be made more child-friendly

bbaSupreme Court Justice Madan Lokur launched a resource manual for child friendly court procedures at the National Workshop on Rehabilitation of Missing & Trafficked Children, held in Delhi, which was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India, T S Thakur & Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

Almost 150 stakeholders of child protection from 12 states and Union Territories came ogether to discuss the challenges in repatriation and rehabilitation of missing and trafficked children and create a draft model standard operating procedure that can be implemented by the Government Departments across the country.

The resource manual contains the compilation of International and national policies on child friendly justice delivery system along with landmark judgements and directions from various courts.

The manual has recommendations from various national and international platforms, which aims in ensuring the access to justice for children is achieved through strong Justice Delivery Systems.

The participants included the Member Secretaries of the State Legal Services Authorities, officials of the Government Departments, police officials, Chairpersons and Members of Child Welfare Committees, Members of Juvenile Justice Boards, officials of District Child Protection Units, NGOs etc.

Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) has been working tirelessly since 1981 to rescue, and rehabilitate child labourers and ensure prosecution and punishment of employers and traffickers. Since inception, BBA has rescued more than 85,000 bonded/ child labourers and has emerged as the largest civil society grassroots movement on child rights supported by more than 80,000 individuals and 800 civil society organizations. The organization has also been working very closely with National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) in favour of child rights on several fronts.