Calendar violates Juvenile Justice Act

Child Rights activists, NGOs and networks have strongly disapproved the content in a calendar brought out by the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD).

The calendar has made use of phrases like 'aparadhi' (criminal), 'vaishyavatike' (prostitutes) and displayed pictures of children affected with HIV and those in conflict with the law.

According to the Juvenile Justice Act (Article 21), words like ' criminals' should not be used for children. Instead, 'children in conflict with the law' is the appropriate phrase. As per the Act, pictures of children in conflict with law should not be used. 'Commercial sex workers' is the appropriate phrase and not 'prostitutes'. Sensitive issues require sensitive usage of language and words and it is unfortunate that NGOs or experts were not consulted before bringing out such material.

CACL-K, a network of NGOs working for children, wrote a letter to the Department strongly deploring the glaring mistakes and demanded that the calendar with a 10,000 strong circulation be stopped immediately and the mistakes rectified. 

The department has since apologised and agreed to remedy the mistakes.  

Newspaper coverage of the issue can be accessed here.
SICHREM, advocacy unit of CACL-K, has written about this issue on their blog which can be accessed here.