The govt is conduct an audit that will lay emphasis on interaction with the children living in these homes.
As reports of sexual and physical abuse of at least 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur town come to light, the Centre has directed all government-run child care institutions to henceforth have only female staff.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi told ET that the decision was taken following a meeting with representatives of all State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) on July 28.
“I have mandated all state commissions to put in a mechanism to ensure proper background checks of all staffers in these (institutions) so that there is no repetition of such an incident,” she said as the latest round of investigations revealed the involvement of seven women staffers in the case. Justice Madan Lokur, chairperson of the Supreme Court Juvenile Justice Committee, was also present at the meeting.
The minister has ordered the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to conduct a survey of the 9,000-odd child care institutions and NGOs running these institutions within a month. These institutions are then to be registered under the Juvenile Justice Act and then linked to a specialised adoption agency listed in the state.
While the last audit was conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in 2014, the minister said this time the audits will lay emphasis on interaction with the children living in these homes.
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“Most audits were related to book keeping and keeping a tab on provision of food etc,” she said. “I have asked all inspection teams to spend time with the children and make a list of things such as the condition of toilets, placement of CCTVs and the amount of playtime offered to these children,” she added.
The ministry also asked teams to involve the local MP and MLA while conducting these audits to ensure political accountability. Most of the destitute and child care homes are run by local NGOs commissioned by the state government.
Balika Grih, a short-stay shelter home for lost or destitute girls in Muzaffarpur hit the headlines after medical examinations and police inquiries revealed that girls, aged between seven and 18, had been repeatedly raped, tortured, beaten and locked up by staff members. One of the inmates also claimed that the body of a girl was buried on the premises of the shelter home, which is funded by the state and run by a non-profit organisation called Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti. The CBI took over the investigation of the abuse of the inmates on Sunday.
