CWOs To Be Appointed In Police Stations

The Supreme Court has directed the States and Union territories to appoint child welfare officers (CWOs) in every police station for monitoring and extending better treatment to juveniles by the police. The apex court, which is monitoring the implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, also directed that state and national legal services authorities to issue appropriate guidelines for training and orientation of police officers, who could be designated as child welfare officers . A bench of justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik said that the training and orientation should be done over a period of six months to one year in every state and Union territory. The court passed the order on a PIL filed by an NGO seeking its intervention for proper implementation of the law.