Srinagar, Oct. 23 -- When a child is abandoned, abused, trafficked, homeless or accused before the law, the State cannot afford a vacuum. For that child, protection is not an abstract promise written into legislation. It is a living system of institutions empowered to act when no one else will. It is the difference between rescue and abandonment, rehabilitation and neglect, justice and uncertainty. The reported absence of duly constituted Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) and Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) in Jammu and Kashmir therefore raises a question that goes far beyond procedure: who stands between a vulnerable child and the failure of the system when the institutions created for that purpose are themselves missing?

This is not about...