Patna: Social welfare minister Manju Verma, the only woman member of Nitish Kumar's cabinet, on Saturday brushed aside the allegations of sexual crimes in shelter homes across the state, saying the issue had been "blown out of proportion".
Allegations of heinous crimes against girls residing in these short stay homes are tumbling out - first from Muzaffarpur, then Chhapra and now Vaishali.
The Telegraph reported on Saturday that a resident of Balika Grih, a short stay home for girls in Muzaffarpur, told a court last week that a minor girl living at the government-funded centre was subjected to sexual harassment to such an extent that she had died a few years ago. The medical reports of 29 girls who had been staying at the centre have been sent to the Muzaffarpur police with sources saying that the findings confirm sexual assault.
But minister Verma, under whose department's watch these centres function, on Saturday insisted that "all was fine".
"There are many remand homes. Irregularities have taken place in a few and we have taken action," she told The Telegraph on Saturday, claiming credit for detecting the crime.
"It was because we carried out a survey that these crimes have come to the fore. No outside organisation pointed them out," Verma added, stressing that good work was being carried out in a lot of remand homes.
Verma said she had visited the Muzaffarpur short stay home before the revelations of sexual abuse against the inmates shocked the state. "The girls did not say anything in front of me," she said, adding that shelter homes in Bihar were now being strictly monitored.
However, the matter appears to be far more serious than what the minister would like to admit. Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police Harpreet Kaur on Saturday said the medical reports confirmed that 16 inmates of the Balika Grih shelter had been sexually assaulted, among them a seven-year-old child.
"Out of the 29 medical reports received by the district police, it has been confirmed that 16 of the victims were sexually abused. We will submit the charge-sheet against the 10 arrested accused, including Brajesh Thakur, proprietor of the NGO, and two officials of district child protection committee within 10 days," Kaur said. The reports were prepared by a medical board of PMCH which examined the girls.
Experts said the system under the Juvenile Justice Act was not working in Bihar. "All shelter homes, whether government or private, have to be registered under the JJ Act. A committee sent by the DM is supposed to visit the shelter home and declare it safe for children. There is a district child protection office which is supposed to inspect the shelter on a monthly basis. There is a statutory District Child Protection Committee which is supposed to visit these shelter homes on a weekly basis and submit a report. There is an Integrated Child Protection Committee headed by the chairman of the Zila Parishad which is supposed to sit twice every three months to discuss welfare measures to be taken in these shelter homes. The social welfare department also has to send inspection teams. Unfortunately all this is on paper only. Else these irregularities would have surfaced long ago," said Jitendra Kumar, the legal officer of Prayas, a voluntary organisation which runs shelter homes in three districts of Bihar.
The heinous crimes came out after a social audit carried out by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) earlier this year. The TISS report unveiled the crimes going on in Muzaffarpur. After that, similar allegations have surfaced in Chhapra and Vaishali.
