“Balashray” Children’s Home for boys was inaugurated today in Ranchi by Justice Madan B. Lokur; Judge of the Supreme Court of India today.

Justice Virendra Singh, Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court,Justice D. N. Patel, Executive Chairperson JHALSA and Justice R.R. Prasad of Jharkhand High Court were also there to mark its joint inauguration.

Other Judges from Jharkhand High Court, Auditor General, Registrar of Jharkhand High Court,Vinay Choubey, Secretary DWCD,Dr Madhulika Jonathan, Chief of Field Office UNICEF Jharkhand,Priti Srivastava, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Jharkhand,Pravin Toppo, Labour Commissioner; DC Ranchi; Navneet Kumar, Member Secretary JHALSA,Rajesh Kumar, Joint Secretary DWCD cum Director ICPS, Dr Smita Gupta from Jharkhand Mahila Smakhya Society were present.

About 32 children were also present.They will be residing in the home. The home has the capacity to house 50 children.

A detailed plan of action was worked out to execute the model child labour rehabilitation program with clear responsibilities and contribution of each partner. The key partners are DWCD, Labour Department and UNICEF.

Labour Department has provided the building and equipped it. DWCD is providing per child cost as per ICPS norms and other operational and maintainace support. UNICEF as one of the partner is providing financial and technical
support to this program. The implementing partner is Jharkhand Mahila Samakhya Society.

The objective is to ensure that the child ones rescued and send to the Children’s Home by CWC must be rehabilitated, mainstreamed and tracked so that he is not re-traped/pushed into labour again.

Justice Madan B Lokur, appreciated the state and other partners for coming up with this convergent model for rehabilitation of the children in need of care and protection.

Justice Virendra Singh emphasized on the family strengthening of the rescued children/children in need of care and protection as it is both challenging and critical for rehabilitation of children.

Justice D. N. Patel said that with inauguration of children’s home and implementation of the model child labour rehabilitation program, state has achieved one of its commitment under Ranchi declaration released on 23rd August 2015. Very soon other commitments under Ranchi Declaration like video conferencing facility in Observation Homes and linking with up with JJBs for speedy disposal of cases; counselling cum legal aid centers in Observation Homes will be started by Department of DWCD.

“It is a convergent model also bringing in education department, skill building mission, district child protection societies, Child Welfare Committee and Police together to meet the one objective of rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection and their regular follow up for tracking them to ensure they do not fall out of safety net. The focus is also on family strengthening” – Dr Madhulika Jonathan, Chief of Field Office UNICEF Jharkhand.