Patna: The Muzaffarpur Balika Grih (shelter home for girls) case and the revelation of wrongdoings at other such facilities across Bihar have dealt a triple whammy to the social welfare department.

It is not getting houses on rent to run various types of shelter homes; NGOs that are currently running such facilities want to surrender them; and many youths selected for various posts are unwilling to join for duty.

"We are at our wits' end. People are not willing to give their houses to us on rent to run various types of shelter homes. The moment we tell them our purpose, they recall the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih case and refuse to rent out their property," a senior social welfare department official told The Telegraph.

The government, in the aftermath of the Muzaffarpur case in which at least 34 girls were alleged to have been raped and tortured in the shelter home, has decided to take over all such places in the state.

The cases of sexual harassment, torture and wrongdoings came to light after Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, conducted a social audit at 110 such facilities in the state and submitted its report to the social welfare department.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has himself announced this and said that the government will have its own buildings to run shelter homes. However, till the time the buildings are constructed, they will function from rented ones.

This is not all. The social welfare department advertised vacancies for 117 posts last year and the recruitment process was completed by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission. However, many of the selected candidates are unwilling to join.

"Around one-third of the selected candidates for different posts like matrons, superintendents, clerks and cooks are unwilling to join as they think that the department is a bad place to work. It is an impact of the Muzaffarpur scandal. We have telephoned them and asked them to join, but they are evading," social welfare department director Raj Kumar said.

He added that the department was mulling coming out with advertisements asking all candidates to join by September end, else their selection will be cancelled.

Another department official said: "It is unthinkable that people are avoiding government jobs in this highly competitive era."

NGOs that are running various types of shelter homes in agreement with the department are applying to surrender them.

"A few NGOs have already told us they do not want to run shelter homes after the Muzaffarpur case because people eye them with suspicion as if they are also involved in wrongdoings," principal secretary, social welfare department, Atul Prasad said.

So far, five NGOs, including one belonging to Padma Shri awardee Sudha Varghese, have applied to surrender the shelter homes run by them. Source said this was to avoid unnecessary attention, suspicion and chances of ignominy.

Varghese acknowledged the move but ascribed a different reason for it. "Yes I have applied to surrender the 'Home for Girls' that I run in Purnea because I live in Patna and it's quite a distance from here. Our capacity was for 50 girls, but we now have around 70 girls of whom 18 are either mentally or physically challenged. The district magistrate, social welfare department officials and the chief judicial magistrate have visited it after the Muzaffarpur case came to light. However, nothing wrong has been found," Varghese said.

Social welfare department director Raj Kumar said he will make files of all the NGOs that want to surrender the homes being run by them and will try to prevent them from doing so.