SC Passed An Order Stating That National Disaster Management Authority Should Give Special Attention To Children In The Event Of A Disaster.

The Bench comprising Justice M.B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, however, refrained from passing any direction to the Authority in  a Petition filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan,
The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, opined that the National Disaster Management Authority should “give special attention to the children in the event of a disaster since they are the most vulnerable victims of a disaster that may strike at any time.
In our opinion, this suggestion is acceptable. Accordingly, we direct the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India to inform all the State Commissions to monitor the Standard Operating Procedure on Missing Children. There is no doubt that rescue of missing children and their restoration are of considerable importance and we expect the State Commissions to take up the task in right earnestness. It is further submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not contain any data of missing children.
 
Since the NCRB is not a party in this petition, we are not inclined to issue any direction to the NCRB to publish the data on missing children. However, we request the NCRB to look into this aspect and include it in the data that is published annually by the NCRB. Again, since the NDMA is not a party in these proceedings, we can only request the NDMA to look into this matter since it does appear that the submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioner are correct. The NDMA should give special attention to the children in the event of a disaster since they are the most vulnerable victims of a disaster that may strike at any time.
 
The matter is listed on 07.12.2017 for the limited purpose of facial recognition issues.