Indian State Requiring Biometrics at Orphanages

One area is stepping up its efforts to track children in orphanages after the Apna Ghar incident .

“[T]he Haryana government is planning to introduce biometric system for inmates and child mapping in every district.

In Gurgaon, over a dozen orphanages and child homes are operating and many of these are yet to be registered as per the recent guidelines issued by the state government. After the shocking Apna Ghar incident, all the orphanages and Child Care Institutions (CCI) have been directed to get registered in the prescribed format before June 30.

On Tuesday, the finance commissioner, Women and Child Development Department, Dheera Khandelwal announced a series of steps planned to be taken in the state to monitor orphanages. “Regular health check-ups of inmates, registration of child care institutions, police verification of the staff and collection of information regarding all orphanages, women and children staying in these institutions, will be done in the entire state,” said Khandelwal.

She also said that the NCPCR had been informed about the multi-pronged strategy to streamline the functioning of the orphanages in Haryana. The initiatives planned by the state government will curb instances of child abuse.

At present, the state government has no monitoring apparatus for keeping tabs on orphanages that leaves the child welfare department clueless about ground realities in the districts.

The state government has initiated an exercise to seek detailed information about all the NGOs working in Haryana and the government nodal officers facilitating the NGOs.

The NGO and child care institutions will now provide mandatory details like landline phone connection for better coordination.”

Now, biometric system for orphanage inmates

[Times of India 6/27/12]

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