06 November 2021 | 5:44 AM HIST
GSCPCR wants records of minors in accommodation facilities to be reported
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa State Commission for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (GSCPCR) has requested the Ministry of Tourism to order operators of accommodation establishments to report to law enforcement authorities suspicious recordings of minors.
A statement written to the department comes following an incident in which a 13-year-old teenager, who escaped from his Mumbai home, was living in a guesthouse in Calangute which allowed registration in contravention of the Goa Children’s Act (GCA).
âRight now, most travelers and tourists to Goa prefer to stay in rented premises, making it difficult for authorities to screen travelers with unrelated children and exploit them. In some cases, the owners of such facilities turn out to be indifferent and do not care about tourists traveling with children.
Travel and tourism actors such as accommodation providers often become, inadvertently or not, intermediaries in the commission of these offenses and should play a proactive role in preventing and combating such incidents, in particular sexual exploitation. children â, we read in an excerpt from the letter to Tourism. Director.
“Therefore, you are requested to order all guesthouses to report such incidents to the child protection system or law enforcement agencies and also to establish a system to prevent such incidents in the near future, âsaid President Peter Borges.
The Commission also wrote to the Goa Police to seek legal action against the operator of the guesthouse for allowing the minor and his friend to break the law.
Borges cited that the alleged accused violated Section 8 (10) (b) of Section 8 (10) (b) of the GCA. In accordance with the law, no child is allowed to enter a room in a hotel or establishment that provides accommodation or accommodation or any similar establishment unless the child is registered as staying in that room. room with family, relatives or a person related by blood.
The underage boy and his friend are said to have taken this step to start a business in Goa. Mumbai Police contacted their counterparts in Goa as the children were suspected of having come to Goa.