Thiruvananthapuram: From April 1 Nirbhaya shelter homes in the state for sexual abuse victims will be run by a new set of service providers. For the first time after the first Nirbhaya Home was opened in 2012 in the wake of the Delhi gang rape, the State Government has invited applications from voluntary and non-governmental organisations for the running of Nirbhaya shelter homes.
Now, there are 11 Nirbhaya shelter homes in nine districts in the state. Thiruvananthapuram district has three such homes, all the three together lodging nearly 70 inmates and run by Mahila Samkhya Society. There are five districts that do not have such a home: Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Alappuzha and Kannur.
A top Social Justice Department official said that organisations with their own buildings would get preference. The official said that some of the existing service providers had not created facilities as stipulated by the ‘minimum standards of care’ brought out by the Department for survivors of sexual violence and trafficking. Nutrition and emotional support are the two areas found wanting in some of the shelter homes.
Some of the NGOs now running the homes say that the government should take the blame for these problems. “The Nirbhaya cell has not released funds on time, even salaries were left unpaid for months. We used to get food on credit or paid for it from our own meagre salary,” a source in one of the homes in Central Kerala said.
“The salary fixed for psychologists is such a pittance that psychiatrists are reluctant to offer their service,” the source said. A clinical psychologist is paid just Rs 7,000 a month. In the capital, however, psychiatrists from the Medical College have provided selfless service. There are also homes without basic amenities like a fridge or television or enough cots and beds for inmates.
