New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked state governments and Union Territories not to delay the process of identification and rehabilitation of street children and directed District Magistrates across the country to involve special juvenile police units (SJPUs), NGOs, and voluntary organisations to identify children on the streets.

A Bench headed by Justice L Nageswar Rao directed States and UTs to take immediate steps to identify and rescue homeless children hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also directed District Magistrates to upload the information of such street children on the NCPCR portal 'Bal Swaraj', dedicated to children adversely affected by the pandemic and its aftermath.

"We are not running away from reality and we know that we are amidst the third wave and we know executives will be busy in handling this but children also cannot be ignored. COVID cannot be an excuse in this case," the top court said.

It directed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to conduct a meeting with all States and Union Territories over their policies on the rehabilitation of children living on the streets and file status reports within three weeks.

The Bench observed that the SJPUs that were supposed to be created in each district have not been set up properly.

"Rehabilitation of children who have already been identified needs to be expedited. State governments need to take policy decisions on the rehabilitation of kids living on the streets," the Bench said.

The Bench was hearing a motu case it took about the children who are adversely affected by the pandemic by losing either one or both the parents and said that there might be "lakhs of children in street situations" in the country.

Earlier, the top court had said that enough had not been done for these children across the country who number lakhs. It had said that States should not wait for judicial orders or delay their efforts to take these children off the streets and rehabilitate them. (ANI)