NCPCR data shows over 1,300 unregistered child care institutions in India, 1,165 alone in Kerala

New Delhi: More than 1,300 Child Care Institutions (CCI) 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. [caption id=“attachment_1548645” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) data comes in the backdrop of reports of in-charge of Missionaries of Charity, a shelter home 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 11 July 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 CCIs 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.