BHUBANESWAR: The state government is indifferent to the plight of children staying in different childcare homes and hostels here, said a member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Jaswant Jain on Thursday. He alleged that neither has the state government mapped the privately-run hostels nor is it monitoring them.Inspections will be carried out across 56 randomly-selected children's homes in 19 districts of Odisha in the aftermath of the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Dhenkanal district . This comes close on the heels of the horrific cases of abuse from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in UP. "We found serious neglect in monitoring of the functioning of many childcare institutes. We have asked the government to complete the mapping of all private hostels at the earliest," Jain said.Jain along with nine NCPCR teams are in the state to investigate the alleged sexual harassments in Beltikiri shelter home run by West Bengal-based NGO Good News India in Dhenkanal district.The inspections are being conducted on the directions of women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi who asked the NCPCR to get all the homes inspected. Gandhi, in a letter to chief minister Naveen Pattnaik dated December 7, said it is a matter of great concern that the incident only came to light when some of the girls residing there confided to the media and accused the shelter home in-charge of sexual abuse. She said that the incident reveals “a deep and utter failure” of the state government. The minister also set up an inquiry into the case which is being led by WCD secretary Rakesh Srivastava.“We will closely monitor the state of affairs and may issue a notice to the chief secretary of Odisha for the lapses and violation of child rights in the state,” Jain said. He added that the state government had overlooked the recommendations made by NCPCR for institutions housing large number of children. “It is unfortunate that none of the recommendations have been followed by the state. We had asked the government to install CCTV cameras, engage trained caretakers and create awareness among the kids on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act so and the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act,” he said.“All institutions, including those with a single child, need to register themselves under the JJ Act, which has been violated in the state. There are as many as 227 registered childcare institutes with more than 12,000 inmates in the state,” he added.The NCPCR teams will talk to the victims, who have alleged sexual harassment in Beltikiri shelter home run by the Good News India, also verify the allegations of religious conversions and foreign funding to the 22 such institutes run by the organisation. The NCPCR teams will also visit the institutes run by the organisation in Jharkhand and West Bengal as well and verify whether they are registered under JJ Act.

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