Shelter Home Sexual Assault: Maneka Gandhi asks states to build central facility to prevent misuse by NGOs

After the fallout of the alleged rape and sexual assault of minor girls at two government-run shelter homes in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and Uttar Pradesh's Deoria, Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday suggested states to build a single large central facility for such children in a bid to prevent misuse by NGOs.

"I have been asking for a scheme where each state should have a single large facility to house all such girls and children which should be run by the state government,” PTI quoted Maneka as saying.

She said that running such facilities would not just be easy but also help in curbing the “abuse and misuse” by NGOs running their own shelter homes with grants from the government.

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The BJP leader said that besides the one central facility, other shelter homes should only be allowed to provide temporary accommodation to women and girls in distress and that too after the clearance from the Child Welfare Committee.

The women and child development minister’s suggestion came after the arrest of a couple for allegedly running a sex racket at Deoria shelter home in Uttar Pradesh.

The couple was arrested for by the UP police for allegedly running a sex racket after the inmates went missing.

The police arrested Girija Tripathi, her husband Mohan Tripathi and their daughter after they rescued 24 girls and found that 18 girls were missing from the shelter home

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Earlier, as many as 34 girls were as many as 34 girls, aged between seven to 14 years, were drugged, raped, scalded with boiling water, and forced to sleep naked in a government-run shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.

(With inputs from agencies)