Kerala: NHRC strict in case of girls absconding from shelter home:
The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of reports of nine girls missing from an NGO’s girl shelter home in Kottayam, Kerala. Officials gave information about this on Wednesday. He told that in this matter the NHRC has issued a notice to the Government of Kerala and the State DGP. According to the information, on Monday, several media houses published the news regarding the disappearance of girls from the Kottayam shelter home. On the basis of these, NHRC has taken this action.
The Commission has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary of Kerala seeking a report along with an action taken report on the incident. Along with this, it has also been said that it should also be told whether any public servant of the Social Justice Department or the Child Welfare Committee was involved in driving away the girls from the shelter home.
Besides this, the NHRC has also taken note of the repeated incidents of missing girls in Kottayam. Taking steps in this regard, the Commission has directed its Special Rapporteur Harisena Verma to visit Kottayam. Special Rapporteur Harisena Varma, after visiting Kottayam and carrying out the investigation, will also have to submit a report to the Commission within two months. The investigation of the present case will also be included in this report. Apart from this, the commission has also said that it is expected that it will also suggest measures to avoid such incidents in the future.
The report should explain the reasons for the dissatisfaction and disenchantment of the missing girls about their stay in the said shelter home. Based on these reports, the NHRC has also issued a statement regarding the action taken. In its statement, the commission has expressed the possibility of inhuman and indecent treatment and said that it seems that the girls living in this shelter home are not satisfied or happy here. Because of this girls are being forced to leave it.
The Commission noted that based on the contents of media reports, it appears that there is a lack of supervision and effective monitoring in the shelter home run by NGO Mahila Samakhya. Despite this, it is recognized by the Social Justice Department and the Child Welfare Committee. Significantly, on Monday, the news about the disappearance of nine girls from Mahila Samakhya of Kottayam had come to the fore.
It was claimed that the girls living in it were protesting for the last several days about staying there. After this, she was found absconding on Monday. This was the third such incident in Kerala. At present, the police had started the investigation by registering the case.
