Record payout awarded to abuse victims at shelter

NEW DELHI — Survivors of a particularly grim corner of India’s welfare system have been awarded thousands of dollars in compensation, a national human rights body announced last week. More than four dozen former residents of a homeless shelter for girls in northern India endured horrific conditions; many were sexually assaulted.

The case involving the shelter in the state of Bihar, which paid the compensation, was particularly striking because of the number of victims. Over a period of years, 34 of them were raped by shelter employees and officials of the state welfare department, according to police. At least one was as young as 10; the oldest was 19.

An independent auditor’s 2018 report revealing the scope of the abuse at the shelter, in the city of Muzaffarpur, prompted national outrage. Federal investigators opened an inquiry that resulted in the conviction of 19 people, including the shelter’s director, Brajesh Thakur.

In 2020, they were found guilty of offenses ranging from negligence of duty to gang rape. Twelve of the defendants, including Thakur, received life sentences.

It is not the first time that states have compensated victims of sexual abuse at government-licensed shelters, but it is the largest case so far, in the number of victims and the size of the payouts. It signals a partial reckoning with the government’s responsibility amid an epidemic of sexual violence in India, even as other high-profile cases are prompting demands for judicial reform. The same year that the Muzaffarpur case surfaced, the nation’s Supreme Court established national guidelines for government compensation to other victims of sexual violence in the state’s care.

All of the 49 girls who had been living in the shelter in 2018 received compensation, as had been the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission, an autonomous body that opened its own investigation into the case. They were awarded $4,000 to $12,000 apiece, according to a statement released by the commission.

The abuse was uncovered in 2018 during the Bihar government’s first independent audit of its social welfare institutions.

The victims scattered after the Muzaffarpur shelter was closed when the trial began. It was later demolished.