- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context.-(a)"begging" means -(i)soliciting or receiving alms in a public place or entering on any private premises for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms, whether under the pretence of singing, dancing, fortune telling, performing tricks or selling articles or otherwise;(ii)exposing or exhibiting with the object of obtaining or extorting alms any score, wound, injury, deformity or disease, whether of himself or of any other person or of an animal;(iii)allowing oneself to be used as an exhibit for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms;(b)"Board" means a Child Welfare Board constituted under Section 3;(c)"brothel", "prostitute", "prostitution" and "public place" shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 (Parliament Act 104 of 1956);(d)"child" means a boy who has not attained the age of sixteen years or a girl who has not attained the age of eighteen years;(e)"children's court" means a court constituted under Section 4;(f)"Children's home" means an institution established or recognised by the State Government under Section 8;(g)"Chief Child Welfare Officer" means the person appointed as such under Section 59;(h)"competent authority" means, in relation to neglected children, a Board constituted under Section 3 and, in relation to delinquent children, a children's court constituted under Section 4, and where no such Board or children's court has been constituted, any court empowered under sub-section (2) of Section 6 to exercise the powers conferred on a Board or children's court;(i)"dangerous drug" shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930 (Central Act 2 of 1930);(j)"delinquent child" means a child who has been found to have committed an offence;(k)"fit person", in relation to the care of any child, includes any society or body corporate established for the reception or protection of children or the prevention of cruelty to children and undertakes to bring up or to give facilities for bringing up any child, entrusted to its care in conformity with the religion of its birth;(l)"guardian", in relation to a delinquent child or neglected child, includes any person who in the opinion of the competent authority having cognizance of any proceedings in relation to such a child has, for the time being, the actual charge of, or control over, that child;(m)"neglected child" means a child who -(i)has no home, place of abode or visible means of subsistence, or its being willfully neglected by his parent or guardian;(ii)is under the care of parent or guardian who is a leper or by reason of criminal or drunken habits is unfit to have the care of such person;(iii)frequents the company of any reputed thief or prostitute;(iv)is lodging or residing in or frequenting a house used by a prostitute for the purposes of prostitution;(v)is found begging; or(vi)is being heavily overworked or ill treated by his employer;(n)"observation home" means any institution or place established or recognised by the State Government under Section 10 as an observation home;(o)"offence" means an offence punishable under any law for the time being in force;(p)"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;(q)"probation officer" means an officer appointed as a probation officer under this Act or under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (20 of 1958);(r)"special school" means an institution established or recognised by the State Government under Section 9;(s)"supervision", in relation to a child placed under the care of any parent, guardian or other fit person under this Act, means the supervision by a probation officer for the purpose of ensuring that the child is properly looked after and that the conditions imposed by the competent authority are complied with;(t)all words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1893 (Central Act 5 of 1898), shall have the meanings assigned to them in that Code.
