Relentlessly and brazenly abused in government-funded shelter homes, the Muzaffarpur girls have already been forgotten by Bihar’s public and politicians

Pushyamitra

Muzaffarpur: A year ago, the shocking stories emerging from Bihar’s government-funded shelter homes, particuarly the horrors faced by shelter home inmates from Muzaffarpur, rocked the nation. The sexual abuse of 34 out of 42 girls aged between 7 and 17 living at the shelter - later confirmed during a medical examination - came into light when the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) released the findings of its social audit of 110 shelter homes across Bihar, carried out on the behest of the state government. TISS scholars had been visiting these homes since August 2017 and compiling horrific accounts of an organised sex raquet being run from these homes, complete with operating rooms to before illegal abortions. Starvation and other kinds of physical abuses were a constant, and disappearences were commonplace.

Since the report was submitted in April last year, heads have been rolling in high places, however mostly in administrative circles. But politically, the case has managed to have the bare minimum impact, despite the strong political links the accused must have needed to run an operation of this scale with such impunity. Last year Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma was forced to resign after it was alleged that her husband had close links with main accused Brajesh Thakur. The owner of Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, a former politician and a newspaper publisher, Thakur was running another shelter home for women, right in the heart of the city’s red light district, from where 11 women and four children are thought to be missing.

As Muzaffarpur went to polls last week, these girls have been forgotten, and Thakur’s shelter home, the site of the various heinous crimes against them, has been brought down by the Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation. None of the candidates cared to address the case even as news broke out just ahead of polling that 11 girls may have been murdered by Thakur and his accomplices and "bundle of bones" have been recovered from a burial ground. Even though it was a case which brought the attention of the entire nation when it had unfolded last year, but local leaders have not mentioned anything on the issue in their speeches during the election campaign, lament activists. “ It is very unfortunate for our society that protection of the girl child is not a serious issue for during the election season. The political parties feel that these basic issues like this won’t attract voters. Qualities like justice and equality is only present in their manifestos but not their value system,” said Anil Prakash, a social activist.

On May 31, an FIR was registered against 11 people, including Thakur,  who was arrested in the first week of June. The CBI has been on the case since then,  and has chargesheeted 21 people in connection with the case, while the Supreme Court has ordered the CBI to submit a status report on the probe by June 3. Already, an alleged victim in the case has turned hostile before a Delhi court, after she failed to recognise two of the accused

Investigation by CBI shoddy, claims activist

Brajesh Thakur owned the shelter home run by non-governmental organisation Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti. He allegedly used to assault the girls when they refused to have sexual intercourse with ‘guests’. “Ravi Kumar Roshan and Mamu often assisted Thakur in the course of making girls dance in front of guests and raping them,” the chargesheet alleged, reported Scroll.in.

The report also mentioned Roshan, a child protection officer under suspension, who also allegedly assaulted the inmates. The CBI has also named Child Welfare Committee Chairperson Dilip Kumar Verma and member Vikash Kumar. Social Welfare Department Assistant Director Rosy Rani, who was in charge of inspecting the shelters, has been accused of turning a blind eye to the incidents of alleged abuse. The CBI has also charged a doctor, identified as Pramila, for not reporting the matter and for allegedly giving abortion pills to the inmates.

Pankhuri Sinha, a poet, had organised a lot protests when the story came out in the media. “Through friends of mine, I had come to know that the girls in the shelter homes were not only physically abused but also given sedatives to prepare them for the visit of clients, so that they don’t yell much when they were abused. Apparently, whenever the girls used to ask for food, they(employees of the shelter home) would  pour hot water on them.”

“After I came to know about all of this, we organised protests across India and we saw huge support from the public. But I feel that the case is moving at a very slow pace and that there is political pressure to fudge it,” she added.

Nivedita Shakeel, a journalist and social activist from Patna, who had filed a plea with the Supreme Court on registration of FIR and an independent investigations on the case, said, “When the story broke, a lot of political parties had come in support but nobody is speaking about it in this election season. It is a very shameful thing for the country that the CBI investigation is being carried out in such a substandard way during the tenure of a government which speaks of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the daughter, educate the daughter). When the initial examination was carried out in one of Patna’s government hospitals, three girls were found to be pregnant, but when they were taken to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), it was found that they were not pregnant. How can their be any difference in results in reports of two government-funded hospitals? What wasn’t any investigation done on this?”

“Brajesh Thakur is just a pawn in this operation, a lot of influential people are mixed up in this.  In their statements, the rescued girls spoke of ‘tond-wale uncl (paunchy man), ‘moonch-wale uncle’ (man with moustache). Where are these people and why wasn’t any investigation done regarding this?,” she added. During police investigation, the victims identified Brajesh Thakur as ‘hunterwale uncle’ (man with a whip) but the charge sheet does not identify the other two people.

On February 7, the Supreme Court ordered authorities to transfer the case from Bihar to a POCSO court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi. In addition to the Supreme Court reprimanding the Bihar police multiple times in the past for negligent investigation, the apex court had also issued contempt notice to then interim CBI chief M Nageswara Rao for transferring Joint Director AK Sharma, who had been handling the case, to the CRPF.

Existing mechanism for sexual abuse not adequate: Supreme Court

In October 2018, an SC bench had concluded that existing mechanisms to curb incidents of sexual abuse are not adequate.

Ashish Kumar, an advocate and a juvenile justice expert, said, “All childcare institutions are required to be registered under section 41 of the J. J. Act, 2015 while following rule 21 and other allied provisions of the J. J. Model Rules, 2016. However, if we see the data from Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), there is a large percentage of child care institutions which are yet not registered but functioning. The Act and subsequent rules have laid down extensive provisions with regards to requisites for getting registered as child care institutions and further follow up mechanism has been set forth for regular checks. If we see the data, budget for child protection is to be expensed only under Integrated Child Protection Scheme of the Government which is marginally very low when compared against GDP of the country. It remains that state has to invest into Child Protection to insure its own made Act and rules to get implemented. The fact is that less than 10% of the child care institutions are either run or sponsored by the State. State has always been shying away from its responsibilities and it is widely dependent upon other agencies who are either not supported by it or if it is supported than in certain cases it is compromised either due to political influence or through corruption. To ensure accountability on each and every institution, Government has to strictly adhere to the Act and Rules and it can happen only when Child Protection Policy for each institution is prepared, supported/financed and duly implemented.”

Since the report, Bihar government has increased the monitoring of child shelter homes. They have implemented a four-layer monitoring system which includes a district child protection unit chaired by the District Magistrate and inspection of the shelter homes are done on a monthly basis. There is also an additional director of child protection unit, who visits these homes frequently. Then the  Secretary of the District Legal Service Authority inspects the homes regularly and the State-level Social Welfare Monitoring team oversees the operations.Under the Juvenile Justice Act, there's a monitoring committee at the district level which makes a visit to such homes at least once a month. The District Legal Services Authority is also mandated to visit such homes. The Assistant Director-cum-Child Protection Unit now visits frequently to child care institutions.

Sayed Mansoor Qadri, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF (Bihar), feels that continuous capacity development of key stakeholders is a must. "Adequate check and balances (Home Management Committee, Children's Committee, Inspection Committee's and Oversight Mechanisms like CWC/JJB (Juvenile Justice Board) are available to be implemented with due diligence.”

But even after strict scrutiny and implementation this system post the shocking revelations, in November 2018, five girls escaped from a government-funded shelter home in Patna. They were survivors of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case and four of them were later found at Darbhanga. Suresh Kumar, a child-rights activist says that as long as CWC runs like in this discretionary manner, manned by moonlighting district officials from other deparments, proper monitoring on these shelter homes will not be possible. “All members of CWC are government employees and due to the workload from their original posting they give little time to CWC.” Additionally, unlike CWC in other states, NGOs and civil society groups don’t have a seat on the table here.

Explaning the role the CWC and other state actors play in this process, Suresh says, “After they are rescued, the girls below 18 years of age are first produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) who pass an interim order for the child to stay in a home till the Social Investigation Report (SIR) is submitted. The SIR is done by the District Child Protection unit (DCPU) which contains details about the girl. The CWC then passes an order after reviewing the SIR. The CWC order shall be of short-term or long-term stay which is reviewed regularly by the CWC.”

Transparency in the operations of these homes in needed, said Suresh Kumar. “Girls who are placed in a shelter home should be transferred to another home after a certain interval of time. This should be done to keep a check on any unscrupulous activity happening in shelter homes. Girls have stayed in a home for a long time should be sent to another home to spend festival this will increase transparency in child care institutions” he proposed.

“NGOs operating shelter homes always complain about fund crunch. Corruption is also rampant in these homes. Most of the shelter homes have very less space. A lot of children live like prison inmates in a small 10,000 square feet homes which have about 30-40 children. There are no playgrounds for recreation and exercise. Another shocking revelation is that at least 10 percent of the children living there are mentally challenged and these homes don’t have any provisions to take care of them,” mentions Suresh.   

“We should adopt 'open-door policy' to engage with the civil society to support care, protection and well-being of children. Additionally, we should ensure that no child is detained in Child Care Institutions (CCI) unnecessarily, thus follow gate-keeping strategy with the focus on family tracing and rehabilitation of children. We should also promote de-institutionalisation through family-based alternative care like sponsorship and foster care. Apart from this, it's pivotal to ensure that the accountability framework is in place for each duty-bearer to act, respond and perform," Qadri recommended.