Inspect all Missionaries of Charity care homes: Maneka to states

New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) Taking cognizance of the recent cases of illegal adoptions carried out by Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand, Union Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) Maneka Gandhi on Monday instructed all the states to conduct immediate inspection of all the child care homes run by the Missionary.

According to the Ministry, Gandhi has directed the states to ensure that all the child care institutions (CCIs) are registered and linked to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) within a month.

The mandatory registration of CCIs and linking to CARA has been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 which came into force more than two years ago but some orphanages had challenged its validity.

The Supreme Court has since dismissed the petitions and upheld the validity of the 2015 Act in its order on December, 2017. Since then, approximately 2,300 CCIs have been linked to CARA and about 4,000 are still pending for linkage.

The Union Minister has also expressed displeasure over the 2,300 institutions linked to CARA as the children have still not been brought into the adoption system.

"The Minister is expected to take this issue very strongly in the meeting of the WCD Ministers of States scheduled to be held on July 17," said a statement.

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