Manisha Kumari (name changed), a 14-year-old whose mother died two years ago, ran away from her home around 1.5 years ago. She was found by the police and produced at Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Ranchi.

The girl in her statement said that she ran away from home because her father used to beat her up and she doesn’t want to return.

Manisha was sent to a shelter home when after being summoned several times, her father did not turn up. She has been living in a shelter home since then. On Sunday, she was sent home with her aunt (mother’s sister) who claimed the custody of the child and Manisha was also eager to go with her.

In another case, a 17 year old girl, who ran away from her house with her boyfriend and was living in with him in Delhi for six months was brought back to Ranchi after her father pressed abduction charges on the boy.

The girl, who refused to go home initially, blaming her family for driving her lover away, was living at a shelter home where she was counseled regularly. The regular counseling sessions helped and she was united with her family on Sunday.

These are just two of 33 such cases where children living in shelter homes were released from the custody of CWC and reunited with their families.

 A two day special court of CWC Ranchi, supported by District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) was organized at Premashray shelter home were 33 cases related to children living in Child Care Institutions (CCI) were disposed.

The cases were from four shelter homes including Premashray, Balashray, Karuna and Asha.

“Most common cases where of runaway children or missing children. In some cases the children were living in shelter homes for three years as their families could not be located earlier,” said CWC chairperson Rupa Kumari.

The court was also supposed to hear the cases of 39 children living in Mahrashi Valmiki Shelter Home situated in Namkom but they did not turn up.

“The women, child development department has directed to shut down this shelter home as it did not meet the norms of Juvenile Justice Act. We have been directed to either relocate or repatriate the child with the family within one week,” Kumari said.

The shelter home managers informed CWC that they were unable to appear at the court as they could not afford brining in all the children and their parents from Namkom to the main city because it will be very expensive for them.

“To solve this problem we have decided to put up  a special bench at Maharshi shelter home this week to dispose the cases there,” CWC chairperson said.