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Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj & Sandeep Suman
The Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar is currently reeling under allegations of sexual abuse at a state-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur. It was due to the concerted effort by a team comprising TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) scholars that blew the lid off crimes against inmates, revealing a pattern of abuse and neglect at shelters for the destitute.
In a telephonic interview, Mohd Tarique who led the ‘Koshish’ team from TISS, told The Quint that the objective of a social audit was to understand what factors were impacting the efficiency of these institutions. Of course, there were concerns right from the beginning:
Different categories of institutions covered under the audit by TISS team included shelter homes for women, child care institutions, adoption agencies, rehabilitation centres for beggars and old age homes. The ‘Koshish’ team visited 110 institutions across 35 districts, out of which only 14-15 were being run directly by the government, rest were being controlled by NGOs.
Talking about sexual abuse is difficult, and, in this case, the TISS team came to know about it only when children began talking about it in third person.
According to Tarique, instances of sexual abuse was reported at three shelter homes, one of them being Muzaffarpur. But what was crucial for the audit team was the fact that children were revealing how they were being subjected to abuse and violence and therefore, immediate action had to be taken.
Around 15 institutions were listed as ones with serious concerns. While at one shelter home, abuse of younger boys by elder boys came to light, at another shelter home, the guards were reportedly passing lewd comments at girls.
The larger question the TISS report raises is how such horrific crimes went unnoticed by the district-level child welfare committees that are supposed to monitor such institutions? And that’s the apprehension of Mohd Tarique as well, who raises questions about the the existing safety mechanism around state-run institutions:
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