Rescued Deoria girls kept at boys’ home after abuse
DISMAL Child rights group finds glaring inadequacies in rehab, says in report ‘gender appropriate’ facility not given
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which sent a four-member team to Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria in August after 26 girls were rescued from an illegally run shelter home where they were allegedly subjected to physical and sexual abuse, has found glaring inadequacies and insensitivity in the rehabilitation of the traumatised victims.
For one thing, despite their distressed mental state, the inmates weren’t even provided a “gender appropriate” and “secure” facility to move to, the country’s apex child rights body said in its report, which was submitted to the Union ministry of women and child development last week.
The NCPCR sent the fourmember team on August 9, three days after the rescue. The inmates of Maa Vindhyavasini Mahila and Balika Sanrakshan Grih in Deoria, being run illegally by a couple, were rescued after a 10-year-old girl escaped from the shelter and complained to the police.The girls complained of having been subjected
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to physical and sexual abuse.
Immediately after the rescue, the victims were housed in a children’s home for boys, called Rajkiya Bal Grih, in Deoria, and were forced to share the facility for a week, according to the report. They were later shifted to separate government-run homes in Varanasi, Ballia and Allahabad.
“Against the gravity of the gruesome incident, the sexually abused girls were restored to a children home for boys. Thus failing to provide a secure, safe and comfortable space for (the) girls to recover from the trauma,” (sic) said the report, a copy of which has been seen by HT.
The infrastructure at the shelter home where the girls were taken to lacked any recreational facilities and didn’t have adequate staff or a library, counselling room, store room and learning material. Nor did the premises maintain proper standards of hygiene and sanitation, the NCPCR team said in its report.
The team, which was led by NCPCR member, RG Anand, also found that in the immediate aftermath of the incident, hardly