The victim delivered a baby on August 31
Representational image (Photo: PTI)
Chennai: While the news of a 14-year-old inmate getting raped by a man who runs the orphanage left the city in shock, what is more alarming is that the Child Welfare Committee in the area has no clue of the whereabouts of the girl.
The victim delivered a baby on August 31. However, since her discharge from the hospital, the CWC, Kancheepuram, says the police have taken no steps to trace her.
According to the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, any child rescued by police or any other social welfare organisation has to be produced before the child welfare committee within 24 hours. The CWC is the only organisation with the power to take decisions with regard to where the child should stay, including medical tests and counselling. However, with regard to this case, the CWC claims that the police never produced the child before them. "The last we heard the child was in the hospital after the delivery, we had two of our workers present at the hospital. However, the police did not pay us any heed and discharged the girl without giving us any prior notice,” said Zaheerudin Mohammad, member of the CWC in Kancheepuram.
The police claim that the child has been handed over to her mother, a daily wage earner who doesn’t have the means of taking care of her daughter or the newborn baby. “Both the baby and the mother are running a big health risk, there is no assurance that they are even safe or alive, we believe the mother is a rag picker and its obvious that she wont be able to provide any extra care.” Mohammad explained.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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