Separate observation home for girls on cards

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, January 3

The observation home for girls, where accused juvenile girls are kept, will be run in a separate building soon as the district administration has finalised land for the project and sent a proposal to the Department of Women and Child Development.

Currently, the lone observation home for girls in the state is being run from Nari Niketan, which is also the only state-run shelter home in the state.

At present, six juvenile girls are living in this observation home, while 40 inmates of Nari Niketan are living in the same building. The observation home is run under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.

The decision of a separate building for juvenile girls has been taken after the visit of Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha to Nari Niketan recently, where he found that juvenile accused were sharing the place with the specially-abled and girls in need of protection, creating safety issues.

He also submitted a safety audit report to the Deputy Commissioner. “I visited Nari Niketan and felt the need of a separate observation home for girls, for which I have submitted a safety audit report to the DC,” Sinha said.

“A proposal in this regard has been sent to Amit Jha, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Department of Women and Child Development. Land has also been finalised near One Stop Centre. We hope that the proposal will be accepted soon. Thereafter, the tender process will be started,” said Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav.

After the approval, a team of the department will visit the proposed land to finalise the map and other formalities, he said. “The observation home is a place of reformation for juvenile in conflict with the law. Therefore, steps will be taken to ensure that during their stay here, juveniles will be provided all basic amenities, including education and sports facilities, along with ensuring computer literacy or skill development projects so that they can be brought in the mainstream of society,” he added.

Nari Niketan, spread over 25,735 sq ft, remained in news for several years as many inmates had already escaped from it, after which steps were taken by the administration.