CHILD Protection & Rights > Operational Mechanisms

III - At State Level and District Level.

2 - Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006 recently passed by both the houses of Parliament makes it mandatory to have one Child Welfare Committee in each district as the final authority to dispose of cases for the care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of children in need of care & protection and to provide for their basic needs and protection of human rights. It has sole authority to deal with matters concerning children in need of care and protection.
The CWC will consist of one chairperson and four members of whom at least one shall be woman and another, an expert on matters concerning children. It functions as a Bench of Magistrates and has the powers conferred by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The committee has the final authority to dispose of cases for the care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of the children as well as to provide for their basic needs and human rights. A child rescued from hazardous occupation, brothel, abusive family or other such exploitative situation must be produced before the CWC who will conduct an inquiry to ensure optimum rehabilitation with minimal damage to the child.
To facilitate the setting up of CWC’s in every district and to ensure their effective functioning, the Scheme shall provide adequate infrastructure and financial support to the State Government and UT Administration.
A detailed guideline for setting up a CWC is given at Annexure- VI of the JJA,2000.

Poster on CWC -Pdf Download

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