TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Department of Women and Child Welfare has initiated an inquiry into the alleged illegal transfer of an eight year old child to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh following directions from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in Delhi to do so.
Deputy Director Tulsidas Shirodkar has been assigned to conduct investigation into the matter wherein South Goa’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC) ordered transferring Rajkumari to Gorakhpur allegedly without the knowledge of her mother.
The NCPCR Chairperson has taken cognizance of a letter by NGO Anyay Rahit Zindagi that urged its intervention to immediately trace the child, in December 2013. According to the letter, the mother-daughter duo is living in Goa since eight years and that in November 2012, Vasco police lodged Rajkumari in Apna Ghar, Merces after the police station was informed the child was alone in a garden.
“Her mother made several visits to CWC to meet her daughter and seek her release but neither her statement was recorded nor was the child given in her custody. She had recently approached the CWC again and to her surprise, she was informed that her daughter has been sent to CWC Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh,” reads the complaint copy.
The NGO claimed the aggrieved mother does not have any relations living in Uttar Pradesh. She in fact hails from a remote village in Madhya Pradesh.
The NGO expressed fears that if urgent action is not initiated the mother might lose her daughter and pleaded to reunite the child with her mother after following due process of law. It has also sought an inquiry into the entire matter, action against whoever is responsible for wrongly transferring the minor girl to another state and recommending guidelines or directions to concerned authorities to prevent reoccurrence of such incidents.
South CWC Chairperson Martha, when contacted for comments, said the child is happy in Gorakhpur and they took such a decision since the mother is an alcoholic. She however refused to justify on what basis the child was sent to Gorakhpur when she does not have any relatives living there.
