Bhubaneswar: In the wake of the alleged sexual assault of a minor at a shelter home in Kendrapada, the state government has ordered immediate district-wide inspection of every institution housing children, including unregistered homes, hostels, shelters, orphanages and residential facilities run by government agencies, NGOs, trusts and religious or charitable bodies.
The action follows the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old tribal girl from Jharkhand at a government-funded shelter home in Kendrapada. Women and Child Development department Commis sioner-cum-Secretary Mrinalini Darswal, in a letter to Collectors of all 30 districts, said, “existing legal provisions for child protection are adequate, but their enforcement has been lacking,” directing Collectors to personally supervise the inspection drive and ensure that every institution is visited without exception.
All inspections must be recorded digitally on the ‘Awesome application’, with paper-based inspection discontinued. An inspection not entered on the application will not be treated as having been conducted. District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) and Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) have been directed to be fully deployed. Collectors may use ‘Mission Vatsalya’ administrative funds for mobility wherever required. Joint inspection teams with police may be constituted, particularly to check facilities suspected of operating without registration. The inspections will examine round-the-clock child safety, entry and exit controls, night supervision, lighting, complaint and helpline mechanisms and staffing. Female personnel are to be deployed to the maximum extent possible and mandatorily in institutions housing girls, including security, watch-and-ward and outsourced positions. Police verification of all personnel-including contractual, part-time, kitchen, security and caretaking staff-has been made mandatory.
Anyone against whom adverse material emerges must be removed from contact with children immediately. Notably, the government has also ordered strict segregation of male and female residents, with interaction allowed only under supervision. Children in conflict with law must not be housed alongside children in need of care and protection. Every resident child is to undergo immediate medical screening, with girls examined by women medical officers.
Institutions must also provide confidential access to women counsellors or DCPU social workers without institutional staff being present. DCPUs have been asked to follow up with every child restored to families or shifted to another institution during the past 24 months. Unauthorised institutions are to be sealed and prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and POCSO Act. Children found there must be produced before CWCs for appropriate rehabilitation or restoration and cannot be left at the premises pending regularisation.
The department has warned that where offences against children are established, action will extend to institutional management, including suspension of grants and cancellation of registration in appropriate cases. Collectors have been asked to submit district-wise action-taken reports by September 30, detailing inspections, unregistered institutions, children rescued, health screenings, staff verification, prosecutions and sealed premises. Moreover, Darswal said that safety of children placed in institutional care is ultimately the state’s responsibility and urged Collectors to treat the exercise as a matter of ‘personal supervision’ rather than routine delegation.
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