14 minor girls rescued from shelter home

LUCKNOW : Dingy rooms, swollen walls, stinking toilets, no open space—not a single indication that Manisha Mandir could be a girls’ shelter home, where 14 minor girls were living a miserable life, said authorities of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and District Child Protection Unit (DCPU). The authorities shifted all the girls, aged between 7 years and 14 years, to two different shelter homes after rescuing them from Manisha Mandir in Gomti Nagar’s Viram Khand, here, on Saturday.

LUCKNOW: Dingy rooms, swollen walls, stinking toilets, no open space—not a single indication that Manisha Mandir could be a girls’ shelter home, where 14 minor girls were living a miserable life, said authorities of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and District Child Protection Unit (DCPU).

The authorities shifted all the girls, aged between 7 years and 14 years, to two different shelter homes after rescuing them from Manisha Mandir in Gomti Nagar’s Viram Khand, here, on Saturday.

The authorities of CWC and DCPU have discovered several anomalies and violation of Juvenile Justice Act during the inspection conducted at the shelter home. The authorities are also mulling registering a police complaint in the matter.

“Six girls, aged around 14 years, were shifted to Rajkiya Balika Grih of Moti Nagar, while eight others, who were very young, were shifted to Bal Grih at Prag Narain Road,” said CWC member Sangeeta Sharma.

Narrating the shelter home’s conditions, Sharma said most of the girls have boils on the skin as they were sleeping on blankets put over the bed plank.

Pus and blood was coming out of their wounds but no medical treatment was provided to them.

Another CWC member, Sudha Rani, said the home was singlehandedly being run by 82-yearold Sarojini Agarwal and no assistant or sanitation staff was kept for cleaning or upkeep of rooms in which children were living. She said Agarwal and her husband stay in the front portion of the same building.

Her driver and his wife stay in one room, while the children in the other rooms.

She said the children were eating stale or half-cooked food as the girls, who were little grown up, used to cook food on their own and take care of the younger children. She said the rooms were very untidy and stinking with no proper ventilation. Moreover, no proper drinking and cooking water was available at the home, she added.

“The CWC team comprising Sudha Rani, Sangeeta Sharma, Kuldeep Ranjan, Richa Kapoor and Vinay Srivastava inspected Manisha Mandir on Thursday, after which they unanimously decided to shift the girls as their condition was pathetic. They sought help from us, so we provided the proper police force to take the girls out and shift them to other homes,” said SP Rural Gaurav Grover, who is nodal officer for special police for juvenile act cell.

Another CWC member said the children living at Manisha Mandir are from two backward region villages along the Indo-Nepal border in Lakhimpur Kheri district.

She said the children belong to very poor families and their parents got ready to keep them at Manisha Mandir after being promised education and a healthy lifestyle.

She said the children’s parents were also asked for money for upkeep and education of the girls.

Meanwhile, Sarojini Agarwal refuted all allegations of the CWC members.

She said that these accusations have been made to malign her image and to prevent her from carrying on the good work that she has been doing.