- Financial Security Of Children
- Child In Need Of Care And Protection
- Cruelty To Juvenile Or Child
- Juvenile In Conflict With Law
- Orders That May Be Passed Regarding Juveniles
- Prohibition Of Employment Of Children In Dangerous Trades/Occupation
- Prohibition Of Children Below 14 Years In Factories
- The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015
Financial Security Of Children
If any person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintain his legitimate or illegitimate minor child,
whether married or not and unable to maintain itself, or his legitimate or illegitimate child (not being a married
daughter) who has attained majority and where such child is, by reason of any physical or mental abnormality, or
injury, unable to maintain itself, a Magistrate of the first class may, upon proof of such neglect or refusal, order
such person to make allowance for the maintenance of such child, at such monthly rate as such Magistrate thinks fit.
Any person disobeying such order is liable to imprisonment, which may extend to one month for every default in
payment of monthly maintenance. An application for maintenance of such child can be filed by any person having
lawful custody of such child.
Such an application for maintenance can be filed not only by children born to persons who are Hindus, Buddhists,
Sikhs or Jainas by caste but also by the children born to Muslims as so held in the case titled
Mst. Noorsuba vs. Md. Kasim, reported in AIR 1997 SC 3280.
Child In Need Of Care And Protection
With the enforcement of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 with effect from
01.04.2002, any child i.e. a person who has not completed 18 years of age:
- who is found without any home or settled place of abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence
- who resides with a person (whether a guardian of the child or not)
- who is mentally or physically challenged, or ill, or suffering from terminal or incurable diseases and has no one to support or look after
- who has a parent or guardian who is unfit or incapacitated to exercise control over the child
- who does not have parents or whose parents have abandoned, are missing, or cannot be traced after reasonable inquiry
- who is being or is likely to be grossly abused, tortured, or exploited for sexual abuse or illegal acts
- who is vulnerable and likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking
- who is found or is likely to be abused for unconscionable gains
- who is a victim of armed conflict, civil commotion, or natural calamity
Such a child shall be treated as a Child in Need of Care and Protection and may appear before the Child Welfare
Committee either on his own or be produced before it by:
- Any police officer or special juvenile police unit or designated police officer
- Any public servant
- Childline, a registered voluntary organization, or any organization recognized by the State Government
- Any authorized social worker or public-spirited citizen
Such children shall be kept in Children’s Homes during the pendency of any inquiry and thereafter for care,
treatment, education, training, development, and rehabilitation. These homes function as drop-in centers for urgent
support, with the primary objective of restoring the child to a family environment wherever possible.
In cases where restoration is not possible, the child may be placed for adoption by the Juvenile Justice Board in
accordance with State Government guidelines. However, no child shall be offered for adoption:
- until two members of the Committee declare the child legally free for placement in the case of abandoned children
- until the two-month reconsideration period has elapsed in the case of surrendered children
- without the child’s consent where the child is capable of understanding and expressing consent