Putting the Bihar government under spotlight, the Patna High Court on Wednesday took suo moto cognizance of alleged sexual exploitation of destitute women who were taking shelter at a government women’s care home at state capital Patna.
This is the second such case that has been reported from the state in the last few years and has brought back memories of exploitation of women at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur in 2018 which was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and led to the conviction of 19 people.
The latest incident came to the attention of the High Court, which decided to convert it into a Public Interest Litigation, after the news about the exploitation of the helpless women was published in a Hindi newspaper.
The media report and subsequent inspections had found that girls and women were allegedly being sedated, sexually assaulted and not even provided with bedding to sleep on.
On Wednesday, the High Court, while listing the matter for 7 February, impleaded senior officials , including the Additional Chief Secretary, Secretary and the Director of Department of Social Welfare, District Magistrate, Patna and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna, apart from the Superintendent of the care centre in the matter, while directing the officials to file an action taken report before the next hearing.
The High Court took serious note of the situation at the “Uttar Raksha Grih” (After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna, managed by the state government, where more than 260 women are housed, and convened an emergency meeting of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee to discuss the news report in which a destitute woman, who had alleged that she and others like her, who were residing in the After Care Home were being forced, after being sedated, to “submit themselves to immoral acts of the wrong-doers”.
The woman had also claimed that the victims residing in the shelter were not being provided with basic amenities like food and bedding and many of them were not even permitted to leave the home.
The High Court in its order also castigated the state government for failing to learn lessons from similar previous lapses and even failing to register an FIR in the case even as the state official, while doing a formal inquiry, gave a clean chit to the functionaries at the care centre.
“Another shocking disclosure has been made by her that strangers are permitted to masquerade as relatives of the victims who come and pick up such hapless women to put their lives and dignity in further peril. The aforesaid news item in a couple of newspapers is yet again societal/collective failure and shame in not containing such offences even after this state and the nation had read about the happenings in Balika Grih, Muzaffarpur. What is rather surprising for us to note is that no FIR has been registered on such disclosure of the victim. Even more surprising is that the director of the Social Welfare Department has conducted an inquiry only on the basis of the CCTV footage installed in the shelter home and came to the conclusion that the accusation made by the so-called victim is baseless and false. It does not appear that any inquiry was made with the victim girl and such an opinion has been arrived at by seeing only the footage of the CCTV camera,” the court said.
After the news report came out, the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Patna along with two civil society members had visited the said centre. During the visit they were informed that 260 inmates were residing there at the time, of whom 30 were mentally retarded.
The rest of the other inmates were either victims of human trafficking or were children in conflict with law and were mainly from Bihar.
During the course of the inspection, the team also found that CCTVs installed in the premises were not working and that there were no records of vouchers of daily purchase of vegetables and consumables. On being questioned, the person in charge told the team that she did not have any experience in accounting.
Such was the sorry state of affairs at the centre that teachers engaged to impart training to the inmates were also made to work in the office as accountants due to which they were not able to cater to the primary responsibility of teaching the inmates.
The team found one of the inmates to be sleeping on the staircase. When asked, she told the visiting team that no bed had been given to her since the time she had come to the shelter home.
The High Court further found that the report of this inspection was never forwarded to the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee’s Secretariat. Even the District Judge Patna, who was reportedly sent this report, did not communicate with the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee’s Secretariat.
Commenting on the clean chit given by the director of Social Welfare Department, the High Court observed, “We are thoroughly dissatisfied with the report of the Director, Department of Social Welfare, Govt. of Bihar which has been published in the newspaper. There is a lurking fear in our minds that if such kinds of offences against humanity are not contained, the promises under the Constitution would be rendered completely meaningless and hollow.”
This is the second such incident that has happened in recent times in Bihar.
Last month, the Bihar government informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that it had paid Rs 3-9 lakh each to the 49 victims of sexual abuse at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur in 2018. The case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After investigation, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against 20 accused, out of whom 19 were convicted by the Saket trial court in New Delhi.
about the exploitation of the helpless women was published in a Hindi newspaper.
The media report and subsequent inspections had found that girls and women were allegedly being sedated, sexually assaulted and not even provided with bedding to sleep on.
On Wednesday, the High Court, while listing the matter for 7 February, impleaded senior officials , including the Additional Chief Secretary, Secretary and the Director of Department of Social Welfare, District Magistrate, Patna and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna, apart from the Superintendent of the care centre in the matter, while directing the officials to file an action taken report before the next hearing.
The High Court took serious note of the situation at the “Uttar Raksha Grih” (After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna, managed by the state government, where more than 260 women are housed, and convened an emergency meeting of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee to discuss the news report in which a destitute woman, who had alleged that she and others like her, who were residing in the After Care Home were being forced, after being sedated, to “submit themselves to immoral acts of the wrong-doers”.
The woman had also claimed that the victims residing in the shelter were not being provided with basic amenities like food and bedding and many of them were not even permitted to leave the home.
The High Court in its order also castigated the state government for failing to learn lessons from similar previous lapses and even failing to register an FIR in the case even as the state official, while doing a formal inquiry, gave a clean chit to the functionaries at the care centre.
“Another shocking disclosure has been made by her that strangers are permitted to masquerade as relatives of the victims who come and pick up such hapless women to put their lives and dignity in further peril. The aforesaid news item in a couple of newspapers is yet again societal/collective failure and shame in not containing such offences even after this state and the nation had read about the happenings in Balika Grih, Muzaffarpur. What is rather surprising for us to note is that no FIR has been registered on such disclosure of the victim. Even more surprising is that the director of the Social Welfare Department has conducted an inquiry only on the basis of the CCTV footage installed in the shelter home and came to the conclusion that the accusation made by the so-called victim is baseless and false. It does not appear that any inquiry was made with the victim girl and such an opinion has been arrived at by seeing only the footage of the CCTV camera,” the court said.
After the news report came out, the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Patna along with two civil society members had visited the said centre. During the visit they were informed that 260 inmates were residing there at the time, of whom 30 were mentally retarded.
The rest of the other inmates were either victims of human trafficking or were children in conflict with law and were mainly from Bihar.
During the course of the inspection, the team also found that CCTVs installed in the premises were not working and that there were no records of vouchers of daily purchase of vegetables and consumables. On being questioned, the person in charge told the team that she did not have any experience in accounting.
Such was the sorry state of affairs at the centre that teachers engaged to impart training to the inmates were also made to work in the office as accountants due to which they were not able to cater to the primary responsibility of teaching the inmates.
The team found one of the inmates to be sleeping on the staircase. When asked, she told the visiting team that no bed had been given to her since the time she had come to the shelter home.
The High Court further found that the report of this inspection was never forwarded to the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee’s Secretariat. Even the District Judge Patna, who was reportedly sent this report, did not communicate with the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee’s Secretariat.
Commenting on the clean chit given by the director of Social Welfare Department, the High Court observed, “We are thoroughly dissatisfied with the report of the Director, Department of Social Welfare, Govt. of Bihar which has been published in the newspaper. There is a lurking fear in our minds that if such kinds of offences against humanity are not contained, the promises under the Constitution would be rendered completely meaningless and hollow.”
This is the second such incident that has happened in recent times in Bihar.
Last month, the Bihar government informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that it had paid Rs 3-9 lakh each to the 49 victims of sexual abuse at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur in 2018. The case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After investigation, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against 20 accused, out of whom 19 were convicted by the Saket trial court in New Delhi.