Focus on Girls’ Education and Prevention of Child Marriage
Mumbai, July 15: Maharashtra Minister for Women and Child Development Aditi Tatkare has directed officials to make temporary child care home facilities available for the children of migrant sugarcane workers in districts from which large-scale migration takes place.
Chairing a review meeting at Mantralaya on the functioning of child care institutions across the state, the minister said that providing temporary shelter during the migration season would ensure uninterrupted education for children, particularly girls, help prevent child marriages, and offer much-needed support to sugarcane worker families.
Tatkare instructed the department to make necessary arrangements in districts such as Parbhani, Washim, Jalna, and Beed, where migration of sugarcane workers is significant. She also directed officials to take steps to reopen closed child care homes, especially those meant for girls.
To improve transparency and maintain quality standards, the minister instructed that inspections of child care homes be conducted every three to six months by officials from a different revenue division.
Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, child care institutions provide shelter and care to orphaned, abandoned, destitute, vulnerable, HIV/AIDS-affected, crisis-affected, abused, and other children in need of care and protection between the ages of 0 and 18 years.
