Absence of mechanism to safeguard child rights in shelter homes
The country was yet to recover from the nightmare of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case when another such case emerged in UP’s Deoria and shook the nation.
As per reports, around 33 girls were raped, brutally beaten and tortured in Muzaffarpur shelter home, run by a politically supported man whereas in Deoria, a mahila evam balika sangrakshan grih, was allegedly involved in a sexual abuse racket.
Though the police rescued 24 girls from there, 18 were said to be missing. However, these are not the first cases -- there have been many such episodes during the past too, which clearly show the irresponsible functioning of the authorities.
Data shows that in our country, there are around 150 million destitute. These orphans and destitute are either kidnapped or forced into the criminal activities and the condition of those who find their way to some institutes or orphanages too isn’t very different from others. They rarely get a healthy and happy environment to grow and learn.
Sometimes, the children at orphanages are not literally orphans; they are often illegitimate children left there due to the fear of society, sometimes due to the inability of parents to look after them or left there by a negligent and drunkard father.
The Muzaffarpur case is not a single case of child sexual abuse; news pages are full of such heinous incidents. In 2012, a case was registered against Arya Orphanage Delhi, after the death of an 11- year-old girl due to diarrhea. Later, the postmortem reports showed that the girl was sexually molested too.
Similarly, in May 2012, some girls ran away from a government-funded shelter home, ‘Apna Ghar’ in Haryana. The investigating committee found the shelter home guilty of abusing children sexually.
Dating back to 2007, studies done by National Institute of Public Cooperation declared that the most common diseases among children of shelter homes were tuberculosis and STDs.
It also reported that the staff of the shelter homes for mentally challenged children assumed that these kids were unaware of the sexual misuse thus could be treated in any which way.
There are many registered and unregistered shelter homes in the country and more than 29,000 children live in such shelter homes.
The basic method of correcting a child in most of these shelter homes is to beat them brutally to create fear in them. This fear doesn’t let them reveal the brutalities and sufferings. The most prominent reason for such continuous sexual abuse at child shelter homes/child care institutions is the absence of proper and strong mechanisms to check the happenings as well as to safeguard child rights.
The inaccessibility of authorities to these children is also one of the reasons. Poor infrastructure of shelter homes is also responsible for the misuse of kids. The minimal investment on infrastructure - poor lighting, cramped accommodation and violence in the name of disciplining children all create unhealthy and negative atmosphere. These places are ruled by fear instead of affection and care. One more reason for increasing misuse of children is the low level of adoption. Due to scientific developments, people prefer surrogacy over adoption; and sometimes couples even return the adopted children with one or the other reasons.
It shows that these orphans are treated like commodities, not like human entities.
The directions of UP CM to monitor all orphanages and other institutions is a remarkable step, but there is a long way to go. A mutual effort by the government and social organisations can be made to create a safe environment for children. Timely inspection, awaking children towards their rights, proper education facilities and timely health care services are the basic steps for improving the condition of such shelter homes.