Take action against illegal childcare centres: HC to Karnataka government

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to take immediate action against childcare centres operating in the city without registration following a disclosure that there were at le

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to take immediate action against childcare centres operating in the city without registration following a disclosure that there were at least 56 such illegal centres, including one operated by an official of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The court also directed the government to take a decision on setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe instances of child trafficking disclosed in the report on a survey, carried out on the court’s direction, of minor children engaged in begging and hawking on city streets. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the directions acting on reports submitted by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA), which had identified 720 minors engaged in begging and hawking in several parts of the city. The KSLSA had also stated that 27 of these children were likely to be under the control of a mafia.The court had ordered the survey based on a PIL petition by the city-based Letzkit Foundation.