‘18 children missing from Bemina orphanage found’

Srinagar, Nov 10: All 18 children who went missing from a local orphanage in Bemina have been located and are confirmed to be safe, officials said.

Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Srinagar, Khair-un-Nisa told Greater Kashmir that all children had been found and were shifted to another area in Bemina.

“We have sealed the trust for running without registration. During the drive, we didn’t find children there. Then, Police also investigated the matter and found out that the children were relocated to another place in the same area,” she said.

Nisa said that the SDM Srinagar had sealed the trust as it was running illegally.

“We visited the Al-Miskeen Yateem Trust at Nund Reshi Colony, Bemina, Srinagar, many times and asked the trust head to get registered under the Juvenile Justice Act (JJA) but they failed to register,” she said.

According to the data accessed by Greater Kashmir, there are a total of 21 childcare institutions in Srinagar district.

Of the 21 institutions, five are government-run and 16 are operated by NGOs.

There are 700 children registered with these childcare institutions.

Of the 700, 150 are girls and the remaining 550 are boys.

Recently, notices were issued to the unregistered institutes, urging them to initiate the registration process within a specified period.

Nisa said that most of the childcare institutions had done the registration process, but some of them were found operating without proper registration, with some even failing to meet the required standards and subsequently being closed down.

According to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, Section 41, all institutions whether operated by the State government or voluntary NGOs, intended for housing children in need of care and protection of children in conflict with the law should be registered under this act, regardless of whether they receive grants from the central or state government.