VARANASI: Twenty-four children have been found missing from two specialist adoption agencies (SSAs) in Uttar Pradesh—Laxmi Shishu Greh of Varanasi and Mahadev Shishu Greh of Mirzapur. This comes close on the heels of the recent Deoria shelter home scandal.Taking serious view of an alert sent by Union ministry of women and child welfare , which has also sought an action-taken report by September 15, the district magistrates concerned have ordered probe into the incident.Officials said the matter was “noticed” by the ministry after the details of three years obtained by Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS) of Central Adoption Resource Agency ( CARA ) revealed that seven children from Varanasi home and 17 from Mirzapur were neither adopted nor found in these homes.CARINGS is a web-based information management system to create a network of stakeholders designed to improve synergy. It provides a national database to enable effective policy-making and research. Additional secretary of Union ministry of women and child welfare, Ajay Tirkey wrote a letter to additional chief secretary Renuka Kumar of UP’s child welfare department on August 21 stating that when details of three years of Laxmi Shishu Greh of Varanasi were obtained from CARINGS, it was found that 15 children were admitted to it while no adoption took place during this period.“As per CARINGS, eight children were found in this home on April 16, while there was no record of the seven others, who were not found in the home. Likewise, details of Mahadev Shishu Greh showed that 38 children were admitted to it, while the total adoption done in this period was 15. Six were found present in the home on April 16,” according the ministry’s letter. The letter further stated that no details regarding the other 17 children could be found nor were they present in the home.The ministry asked the DMs of Varanasi and Mirzapur to file reports on the functioning of the child welfare committees and district child protection units.Varanasi district probation officer, Pravin Kumar Tripathi said, “Laxmi Shishu Greh was blacklisted in March. In view of the ministry’s letter, we are trying to collect the whereabouts of seven children.” Maa Vindhyavasini shelter home of Deoria had come to limelight in August due to alleged sexual harassment of women and girl inmates.

Stay updated with all the Varanasi Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.