New Delhi: Experts in the field of rescue and rehabilitation of children and women have demanded that regular visits be organised to assess the conditions at childcare institutions in the country. They have asked for these visits to be conducted by teams comprising eminent citizens, members of the judiciary, media, NGOs and academicians.
The demand comes in the light of Centre’s submission to the Supreme Court that a survey of 9,589 childcare institutions had revealed 1,575 sex abuse victims, which led the apex court to order it to formulate a child protection policy.
Experts have also demanded that instead of being used as detention centres, children living in these care homes should be allowed to go to regular schools so that they are able to report any wrongdoing immediately and thus crimes of the kind that took place in Muzaffarpur or Deoria are never repeated.
It was during a hearing recently that Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand had told a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta that the report on childcare institutions had been shared with the concerned states. She said it was prepared following a survey that was conducted between December 2015 and March 2017.
Prior to this, the Centre had ordered an audit of all the 9,000-odd institutions for childcare in the country. Announcing the decision, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had stated earlier this month that she had asked the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to ensure that the social audit was completed within 60 days.
Gandhi had stated that the survey would be conducted with the help of a pro forma that would help the authorities learn the condition of the children, the facilities available in the centres and also provide a complete background check of those running the homes.
Social activists and people working in the field of women and childcare insist mere surveys are not the solution to the vexed problem and regular visits by eminent people drawn from all walks of life is the only way of ensuring that children and women are not exploited behind the high walls of such institutions.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal, who claimed that she regularly visits Nari Niketan, Asha Kiran and other care homes in the capital, said she often gets complaints regarding private homes and takes action against them as well.
‘Regular follow-ups needed after one proper social audit’
The DCW chairperson said what is required is a comprehensive social audit of all shelter homes and subsequently regular follow-ups. “Also, it should be made incumbent upon all officers that they would have to regularly inspect the homes under their jurisdiction at least once or twice a week. A report should be prepared accordingly and the accountability of the officers should be fixed for every commission or omission.”
Recalling how when she had first visited Nari Niketan in Delhi, she was “quite shocked because women had been languishing there for over ten years, nobody had bothered about them” and because “they had not been restored and attempts had not been made to rehabilitate them,” many of them had become mentally challenged. “We don’t know what kind of medicines they were being administered,” she said.
Referring to how despite so many visits to the homes in Delhi she had “not come across instances like those of Muzaffarpur and Deoria which have really shocked the conscience of the country,” Maliwal said still the state government is “getting a social audit done for each and every home in Delhi.”
‘Teams of experts, prominent citizens should inspect shelter homes regularly’
Maliwal, who at the beginning of her stint as DCW chairperson three years ago had also vociferously raised the issue of confinement of women in brothels, said it was important for experts and prominent citizens to be allowed to go into these homes, see the conditions for themselves and highlight any shortcomings or wrongdoings.
“We keep visiting these homes, but I want experts to go inside. We want sociologists, psychologists, mental health experts and academicians to visit these homes so that a proper and comprehensive report can be prepared on the conditions of the homes and what can be done to improve them,” she said.
Representative image. Credit: Reuters
Women live in a suffocating atmosphere in these homes
In Delhi, Maliwal said, “the biggest problem I find with the shelter homes is that the atmosphere is really suffocating. These girls are not at fault. It is not as if they are criminals, but they have just been dumped in these homes. When I had visited Nari Niketan for the first time, I had found that there was no means of recreation there. It did not even have a television. Also, there were no classes for yoga or dance. So we introduced all those things.”
She also lamented that there was “lack of sympathy and freedom of movement” for the inmates which was quite visible. “Through this social audit we would like to address all these issues,” she added.
Inadequacy of staff a major constraint
Another major issue is the lack of staff. Also, nothing has been done to improve the sensitisation and accountability of the staff.
Maliwal said a different level of expertise and adequate staff is also required to make the shelter homes function optimally. “I once visited a children’s home where I discovered that they had just one cook for 150 children. Now, this meant that this woman cook would be taking the help of the girl inmates for cooking because it is otherwise practically not possible for her to cook for so many. What action could you take against her and why?”
So, she said, action should be taken against government officers who overlook such understaffing. “It was after much persuasion, as service matters come under the Lieutenant-Governor, that we finally got two-three more cooks employed there.”
Surprise inspections can ensure proper upkeep at all times
Maliwal also suggested that surprise inspections should be carried out by top functionaries to ensure proper upkeep of the shelter homes at all times. “Once when Najeeb Jung was the L-G, he had visited Asha Kiran and people there tell us that for two months the place was cleaned for his visit,” she said, wondering why his visit was announced in advance. “The L-G should just get up and visit these home to get a first-hand account of what actually happens there,” she demanded.
Further, she said, the inspection team members should spend the whole day and night at the homes to get a hold of the reality. “The inmates would also confide in you. Till the time such detailed visits and inspections are not done, till the time each and every girl is not interviewed in a proper and conducive environment, I really do not think much would come out.”
“When I had gone to Asha Kiran, I had stayed there the whole night. The following day too I was there. What I saw was really sad. Women, who were mentally challenged, were made to stand nude in the corridor and there was a CCTV camera installed there whose footage was being monitored by a man. We noticed this and got this entire system changed,” she said.
Maliwal, who recently got another three-year term, said in Delhi it would be ensured that these shelter homes no longer remain just places where women and children are dumped. “No accountability is fixed for their restoration. The Commission would now be taking up these issues on a war-footing. We are involving experts in this. The empowered committee would conduct social audits. Then we will come up with a mechanism for ensuring constant visits to these homes and constant monitoring of their upgrade.”
The Deoria shelter home. Credit: PTI
‘Home inmates are not criminals, should be allowed to study outside, interact with the outside world’
Pointing out that most of the home inmates are not criminals and are rather children and women who have been rescued, she said they should be encouraged to see the outside world. “I understand there are security concerns, but then proper steps can be taken to address them. In Muzaffarpur case, the lawyer for Bihar government said when asked by the court if the children were going to school, that the facility was being provided to them in the home itself. Now how is that possible?”
Questioning the rationale behind keeping children captive like this, she said “one of the basic things is that these children should be sent out to proper schools. In Delhi, the inmates of government children homes go to schools. We even have buses for them.”
Muzaffarpur, Deoria two more examples of systemic failure
Rishi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini, which has been involved in saving children from traffickers, sex trade and kidnappers, recalled how apart from Muzaffarpur and Deoria there have been many sensational cases of exploitation of children and women in other parts of the country as well and yet no proper mechanism was put in place to prevent their recurrence.
“These are just two more examples of total systemic failure of the state governments, the Centre and the NGOs. There is no discipline in running of these homes; the writ of the superintendent runs in all these centres. No one speaks up. There is no counsellor inside. All these girls and children are victims of violence and they are kept confined inside.”
Kant said it is mandatory as per a Supreme Court order that every protection home must have a CCTV camera. “We need to ask if Deoria or Muzaffarpur had these. In NGO-run homes too, these Supreme Court directives apply. So how is it that despite the directives, the exploitation was rampant?”
From Centre to child protection officer, all failed in their duties
Kant said right from the Centre all the way to the monitoring officers, everyone failed in their duty in protecting the children.
“These institutions were funded by the Centre. It was the government’s money released in the name of the president of India which was going to that NGO. It was also the responsibility of Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare to conduct independent scrutiny of the functioning of the institution every three months,” he said, adding that they all failed in performing their roles.
Under the JJ Act, he said, every district judge is also supposed to monitor protection homes under their jurisdiction periodically and to conduct surprise visits. Likewise, under the Act, it is also mandatory for the Child Welfare Committee to give an authorisation that the institution is competent enough to run a protection home. “But in Muzaffarpur, a member of the CWC itself is an accused,” indicating a high level of complicity.
Similarly, he said since monitoring in childcare homes is done by district probation officer in Uttar Pradesh and by district social welfare officer or by district child protection officer in Bihar, the revelations are clear indicators that proper inspections were not taking place.
Kant also questioned the role played by the National Commission for Women which, he said, is mandated to undertake random checking of the protection homes. “But they do not have a proper committee for this,” he charged.
“My question is why are only the state department officers being suspended, why not the Union secretary whose is responsible for ensuring that all the care homes are registered, scrutinised and their reports are prepared by the state departments periodically because Centre’s money is being spent on them?” he asked, adding that these authorities cannot simply wash their hands of the case.
‘If norms had been followed, cases of exploitation would have been detected earlier’
“In both Muzaffarpur and Deoria, it needs to be investigated how and why the girls were taken there. We have rescued so many girls. As per the norms, first, a medical examination of the girls is done, then a telephonic order is taken from the CWC and we have to keep the girl in the home they direct us to. The following day the statement of the girl is recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the same day they are also produced before the CWC along with the investigation officer.”
Stating that if all these norms had been followed, then the exploitation of girls would have got reported immediately. “If 100 girls were staying in Muzaffarpur then there would be at least 50-60 investigation officers of the police dealing with their cases. Yet the exploitation never got highlighted. So it needs to be probed what is happening to their cases,” he said.
Kant said it is with great effort that police, NGOs and other departments rescue these girls from traffickers, kidnappers or prostitution networks. “However, it is extremely disappointing that they end up being exploited within these protection homes. Some girls we rescued and who were sent to homes in West Bengal and Jharkhand later told us that life was hell inside these homes.”
Like Maliwal, Kant also believes that NGOs should not run the protection homes and they should be run by the government only. “However,” he said, “a committee should be formed for these homes comprising eminent personalities, people from the civil society, media, lawyers and judges to monitor them on a regular basis. The NGOs should focus not on running these institutions but only bring a smile to the face of those living in these institutions.”
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Past cases of exploitation of women and children in care homes
July 2007: Sting exposes state-run orphanages in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu facilitating sexual abuse of children by foreigners and Indian tourists in exchange for money. PIL in Supreme Court leads to an order in May 2017 in which all childcare institutions are mandated to be registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
April 2012: Exploitation of inmates exposed at Apna Ghar shelter home in Rohtak following the escape of three girls. In an operation by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, about 120 inmates were rescued. Nine people have since been convicted by a special CBI court and three of them have been sentenced to life.
2012: Twenty-eight minors, including 14 girls rescued from a shelter home in Kolkata after an inmate informed Childline about the sexual exploitation taking place there. The young girl was found roaming on the streets.
August 2015: Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal raids Nari Niketan and finds many anomalies in its functioning. Four officials were suspended later after she submitted her report in September 2015.
2017: As many as 57 girls went missing from a protection home in Agra. A year later, they remain untraced. An NGO, Guria, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in December 2017 seeking a probe in the matter.
May 2018: Sexual abuse of at least 34 women confirmed at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur in Bihar following an audit by Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
August 2018: Twenty four girls were rescued while 18 were found missing from a shelter home in Deoria in UP after a ten-year-old inmate escaped and narrated how the inmates were being exploited there.
August 2018: SOS Children’s Village official held in Guwahati for molesting three minor girls. Children had complained to the authorities that they were assaulted in a car. An investigation revealed that many of the inmates at the shelter home were victims of sexual exploitation.