Shelter home abuse: Supreme Court seeks report from Centre

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre as to what action it had taken against government funded shelter homes where 1,575 cases of sexual harassment against girls and boys across the country were reported in the social audit conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

A three judge Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta taking suo motu cognisance of sexual abuse in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh shelter homes, questioned the additional solicitor general Pinky Anand for not taking any action despite the report having been submitted one year ago.

The ASG said the report had been sent to the states concerned and some states had responded but still reply was awaited from some more States. She said it was the responsibility of the States to take action and the Centre could only advise them.

Justice Lokur pointed out that as per the TISS report 1,575 children were subjected to sexual abuse, of them 1,276 are girls. The report also mentions about 189 children who are victims of child pornography. “We are concerned whether children living in shelter homes are being abused or looked after properly. Tell us what action have you taken against such homes. There is no point in saying that 1,575 children are subjected to sexual abuse”, Justice Lokur observed.

Justice Deepak Gupta told the ASG “we cannot shut our eyes to newspaper reports about sexual abuse coming every day. What the Centre has filed by way of reply is totally unrelated to what we wanted you to do.”           

The ASG told the bench that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) would complete the process of audits across all states by October this year. She said further course of action would be decided after the report was received. The bench asked the Centre to consider framing a child protection policy.

Earlier senior counsel Ranjit Kumar appearing for Bihar government informed the bench that three institutions including AIIMS Delhi, are examining psycho-social aspect of the girls allegedly abused at Muzaffarpur shelter home. Children in these homes would be given counseling so that they come out of the trauma. The bench directed the matter to be listed after two weeks.

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