Review cases of older children who could be made free for adoption Irani to CWCs

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday asked child welfare committees to visit child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption as soon as possible.
    Many children living in child-care homes are not legally free for adoption.
    According to official figures, there are around 66,000 children residing in child-care homes across the country and less than 3,000 of them are legally free for adoption.
    Irani was speaking at a regional symposium on "Child Protection, Safety and Child Welfare" attended by child welfare committee members and officials from child-care institutions among others.
    The Union minister asked the child welfare committees to visit the child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption at the earliest.
    Irani said the women and child development ministry has already reviewed two states, looked into 9,000 cases of older children and identified 164 such children who could be made legally free for adoption.
    She also asked the child-care homes to look into the infrastructure gaps in their areas and requested the apex child rights body -- the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights -- to review these gaps and present them to the ministry so that these can be brought up in the upcoming budget.
    Irani said the government will build up infrastructure to prevent child trafficking in the border areas.
    An online training module on the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, developed by the ministry in collaboration with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie), was launched on the iGOT Karmayogi platform.
    The module aims at sensitisation and capacity building of all functionaries who need to be aware of the provisions of child safety, protection and welfare up to the village level.
    Irani also told the child welfare committees that the Centre will build offices for those that do not have one.
    She highlighted how seven lakh children across the country have been aided in nine years of the Modi government with the help of child-care institutions. She said about three lakh children who were declared missing have been reunited with their families in these nine years by District Child Protection Units and police administrations.