Rajan Gandhi
The recent incidents of Muzaffarpur in Bihar and more recently of Deoria in UP has not only shocked nation but every Indian is ashamed of what has happened with forlorn children.
Despite prevailing stringent laws systematic failure of administration to check the malice has come to fore as in Bihar case, husband of social welfare minister ,who resigned, is alleged to be a regular visitor and in UP case daughter of the accused is ICWD (Integrated Child Welfare department) employee, supposed to implement and safeguard government schemes but despite cancellation of their shelter home license both husband and wife, defied orders to transfer girls to government run shelters and were seen with District Magistrate in pictures suggesting alleged collusion of authorities. In Deoria case, one ten year girl ran from shelter home, walked to police station to narrate her ordeal and got FIR registered whereas in Muzaffarpur case a Social Auditing was undertaken by Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) as they were approached by Bihar government to conduct a social audit of 110 government-run or aided institutions .TISS team had a herculean task of winning the confidence of girls of Muzaffarpur shelter home as girls knew the moment team gets out they are again at the mercy of same group of criminals. But once girls got the clue that team had come for them only, they spilled the beans of these beasts. During audit itself team knew something is terribly wrong at the shelter home but they couldn’t investigate further as it was beyond their scope of work assigned as such they recommended for proper investigation and unfortunately few officers held up the concerned file for long and ultimately 14 of them got suspended.
Coming to our state, situation is no different as police rescued 19 minor children in the age group of 7 to 15 allegedly molested and tortured by the pastor of local church. The issue came to light when the local residents reached the district administration to complain about the pastor who was running the unauthorized hostel. In Jammu shelter homes of different categories operate under the supervision of Director Social Welfare Jammu with seven different departments working under SWD as well as different NGOs. There is a residential school for blinds established for the protection, welfare and education of the blind with an intake capacity of 25. A person having blindness within the age group of 6 years to 21 years can stay till graduation or 25 years of age, whichever is earlier. The inmates are provided free education, vocational trainings for which they are found fit. In addition they are being given lessons in music. Besides this the inmates are provided with clothing, free boarding, lodging and meager pocket money @ of Rs 30/- per inmate per month. Then there are seven Nari Niketans functioning in Jammu Division wherein deserted /destitute ladies/ widows having no means of livelihood are taken care of and total intake of all seven is just 255. The inmates shall remain in the institution till they are rehabilitated or get married or covered under any schemes for employment and self employment. The inmates are being provided care and protection in the institutions besides food, shelter, bedding and clothing are also being provided. For School going destitute girl free education is also provide in addition to other facilities. The children accompanying the mothers are also entitled to admission subject to the condition that male children after they attain the age of six years shall be transferred to Bal Ashram. Ten Bal Ashrams are running in Jammu Division wherein orphans/ neglected boys are given admission in these homes. Admission is available to children (boys) irrespective of community, class or category subject to the condition that he is an orphan, neglected or belongs to a poor family. Inmate can stay in the institution from 6-16 years of age or pass matriculation or higher secondary education, whichever is earlier and total intake capacity is just 490 only. Then there is one observation home at R.S.Pura in Jammu District established in 1988, where under trial, delinquent juveniles are kept under the observation where they are provided with boarding, lodging and shelter. Besides this counseling sessions are also being conducted time to time so that they may not conflict with the law in future. There is only one vocational centre in whole Jammu Division with intake of 75 women and there are 78 Social Welfare Centres and 15 Cottage Industry Centres with each CIC centre having an intake of 25 candidates. Working women hostels are also there along with Gujjar-Bakerwal hostels under other government departments as well as Red Cross aided shelter homes for Divyangs.
Similarly in Kashmir division there are 73 Social Welfare Centres and these centers are shifted to new locations every two years in consultations with public representatives. Unemployed and less educated rural women in the age group of 15 to 35 years are imparted training in various crafts so that they can become self dependent and are able to earn their livelihood. Presently 1825 girls are being imparted training in various trades like cutting, tailoring, knitting, embroidery etc. A stipend of Rs.100 is paid per month for 11 months. Then there are nine Cottage Industry Centres in Kashmir. Training in different trades like carpentry, dari making, willow work, leather making etc is being imparted through Cottage Industrial Centres being run by Social Welfare Department. Again a stipend of Rs.100 is paid per month for 11 months with total intake of 225. There are 11 residential homes (Bal-Ashrams) with an intake capacity of 570 inmates. There are 6 residential Homes for girls (Nari-Niketans) with an intake capacity of 175 inmates. There are 3 Ladies Vocational centres with intake of 75 candidates. The candidates must be between the age of 14 to 40 years for craft trade and 16 to 25 yrs. for stenography trade. The minimum qualification of the female candidate should be middle or above for craft class and 12th pass or above for Stenography class. The monthly income of the family of the applicant should not exceed Rs 1500/- for craft and Rs 1000/- for Stenography trade. Lastly there is a Juvenile Home at Harwan Srinagar.
These are the official statistics as per Social Welfare Department but various NGO’s are also running welfare centres and shelter homes in the whole state. In addition to these there are crèche for children of poor women under Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme and there are four Swadhar Greh are also functional in J & K. With a partly monthly support of Rs.30/= or Rs. 100/= one can gauge the seriousness of government’s efforts for upliftment of orphans, destitute women as no Social Audit of any of these centres would have been ever done . Official web site claims a daily expenditure of Rs. 100/= per day per inmate on meals but certainly no quality check or audit would have been done over this also. There is no transparency on the menu of eatables provided , is there any medical facility available for the inmates, are there any playing facilities available for kids which are utmost important for the mental growth of these children. Recently only J&K High Court has directed SWD to improve pathetic conditions of CCIs.
With the prevailing situation in whole country where every other day atrocities or mismanagements are exposed in various shelter homes, it becomes duty and responsibility of our state administration also to go for social audit of all these centres or homes immediately. Even in case of private NGO’s no grant shall be provided without social audit report to safeguard children and women from exploitation. Various writ petitions have been filed in Jammu also regarding child abuse at special homes or school for mentally retarded and physically challenged children as well as financial assistance to private shelter homes which itself depicts that all is not well in our state also. Every centre/home should have private women citizen as guiding member who is easily approachable by all inmates as well as day students. With sustained efforts from one and all only then we can safeguard their rights. Even Supreme Court has taken the issue very seriously and asked the Central government to submit its report on auditing 8000 to 9000 shelter homes throughout India. The audit report of Bihar which has come out in public domain is really scary with almost each and every shelter home, be it for boys, girls or women, has its own story from beating, getting household jobs done to security guards exploiting children to higher officials visiting these homes for sexual favours and the list is endless and the most astonishing part is criminal silence of whole administration on the issue.
It seems there is no one to fight on their behalf for their rights in the whole country. Though a God fearing society we have failed time and again to expose these sick minded criminals. Let every MLA be assigned with additional duty to give compliance certificate of all guidelines by these centres/homes in his/her constituency along with yearly social audit. There is no harm in doing something extra to safeguard these fellow human beings. Every citizen has moral responsibility as well as duty to contribute from there end to uplift our fellow citizens. Let us all pledge to keep an hawk’s eye on these shelter homes/centres, together we can succeed in ensuring eradication of such ruthless criminals from our society.
“Our society cannot have peace unless we remember that we belong to each other.”
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