Hyderabad: Children who are victims of violence and are rescued by the police or other agencies are sent to rescue homes and child care homes. These are supposed to be havens for the kids who have undergone a terrible ordeal. But case after case has shown that violence continues in rescue homes.
A large number of private orphanages are money-making machines for their owners and only add to the misery of the children. Government run institutions are no better.
In June this year, a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Ranga Reddy district sexually assaulted a minor in a government-run child rescue home.
Just a month after the incident, a 14-year-old victim of a gangrape was brutally beaten up by other inmates in a rescue home under the nose of an official, who was later suspended.
In the same month, some 70 child labourers were forced on to the streets from CWC rescue homes in Warangal by the police following miscommunication between departments.
In July, the pastor and owner of an orphanage was accused of sending rescued children on to streets to beg. The children also reportedly faced violence inside the orphanage.
Child rights activists say the rescue homes are in a deplorable condition and lack the infrastructure for rehabilitating rescued children. They allege that the state government is uninterested in the welfare of children.
“Look at the major child protection agencies and bodies funded by the government. None of them is monitored or evaluated by the government, which makes these bodies unaccountable for their actions,” said a child rights activist from Hyderabad.
“Some incidents of violence against children within the rescue homes have been reported, but many others may not be. There is an urgent need for policy changes at the government level to improve state agencies to protect children,” she added.
