Congress raises stink over running of shelter home

New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress president Sharmistha Mukherjee alleged that “terribly wrong” things are happening in the government-run women’s shelter home, Snehalaya, in east Delhi’s Karkardooma.

The Congress leader said that these shelter homes are in a pathetic state and women are physically abused and assaulted by the outsiders.

The Mahila Congress also lodged a complaint at Aanand Vihar police station on Saturday and sought immediate and strict action against those involved.

Ms Mukherjee said that a group of Mahila Congress members who visited the shelter home carried out a sting operation and found that the women were living in deplorable conditions there.

She said that Snehalaya has been placed at the second place on the Delhi police website. She also alleged that a team Mahila Congress workers were not allowed to the ground floor of the shelter home while the top two floors were found locked, claiming that some of the women staying there were mentally unstable and could be violent.

The Congress leader demanded the AAP government to order a social audit of government shelter homes for women by a neutral agency.

The Congress leader added that some of the women there spoke fluent English but living conditions there were pathetic.

“There are educated women with children at the shelter home. But they are beaten up and denied food,” Ms Mukherjee noted.

In the wake of the Muzaffarpur and Deoria incidents, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asked the All-India Mahila Congress to find out the condition of state-run shelter homes for women across the country, she said.

The Delhi Women Congress volunteers approached seven shelter homes in the city with a plea of distributing sweets and fruits to the inmates. We were given access by three of the homes, Ms Mukherjee said. “The condition at two of these shelter homes was satisfactory, while at the Karkardooma shelter home, the party workers found the condition terribly wrong,” she added.

She said the members could not visit the Young Women’s Christian Association shelter home. Matritva Chhaya and Nirmal Chhaya complex did not allow them and Premalaya in Mayur Vihar was untraceable as only phone number of the shelter home did not elicit any answer.