State bifurcation spared not even homeless minors. There are about 21 juvenile homes of undivided Andhra Pradesh which provide shelter to hundreds of juvenile delinquents and street children, but now cleave between the two states results in an acute space crisis to house these minors.
In the division of state assets, seven such homes have comes towards Telangana’s lane (with 431 children living on these premises) while the remaining 14, with a total of 1,400 children, have gone to AP.
And this number, according to official sources, isn’t adequate because, in the T-state in particular, these homes are concentrated around only two districts: Hyderabad and Warangal.
“So in case children from other districts are taken into custody, they have to be shifted to these locations making it difficult for parents to locate them,” said an official of the Telangana juvenile welfare department.
Adding to the grief, the department, of both states, has the shrunken budget that has been split in a ratio 58:42 between AP and Telangana respectively.
“The cash crunch is actually hampering our work as we need financial support to rehabilitate the children. Also, the dearth of juvenile homes is a major problem,” said, Gopi Kumar Pradeep, a senior official from the T-department.
The Telangana state has two children’s homes, three observation homes, one special home and one girl’s home, all of which are jointly known as juvenile homes.
And unlike the case of jails, homeless minors in these homes will continue to stay put where they are, irrespective of their nativity.
“It is difficult for us to establish their nativity because some of them come from different states like, Bihar, Orissa and other neighbouring states. Most of them are transported here as labour,” said V Bhaskara Chary, director for ju venile welfare and correctional services, Telangana.
Officials as of now are busy in chalking plans to drawn more financial assistance towards maintenance of these homes and set up one such facility in each district of Telangana.