NEW DELHI: The sight of girls engaged in daily chores is generally not an alarming one but similar scenes becoming commonplace in a shelter home are sure to set alarm bells ringing. To make matters worse, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) inspection team, led by chairperson Swati Maliwal, found that at one centre, a lone cook caters to the hunger pangs of the girls, who are often made to cook for themselves.
The case may be no different in the 13 NGOs in the city which maintain open shelter homes for children. Most of them complain of paucity of funds. Each home, which houses 25 children, has an annual budget of Rs 19,99,200 released by the WCD Ministry. An additional Rs 5 lakh is granted to the non-profit organisations once in five years for nonrecurring expenses, as per an RTI reply provided to the Centre for Holistic Development. However, Maliwal said that insufficient budget cannot be an excuse for the erratic running of the homes as most of them get donations from external sources.
“The budget which comes from the ministry is not sufficient to run an open shelter homes. Which qualified person would work for a mere Rs 8,000 per month as staff? It’s impossible for an organisation to maintain homes solely depending on government funds. The funds are also released to us once an annual budget is invested completely,” an NGO coordinator said.
In their annual budgets, child care institutions receive a monthly grant of Rs 2,000 per child. The staff salary is distributed per month is as following: Rs 17,500 for a project coordinator, Rs 14,000 for a social worker, Rs 9,000 each to both care givers, Rs 8,000 each to three outreach workers and Rs 6,000 each to a cleaner and cook. To meet any further expenses, the organisations rely on donations.
“The financial support is provided for 25 children utilising the services at night as well. During the day, there would be more children utilising services for intermittent periods. For children availing services only during the day, a monthly maintenance of Rs 1,000 per child is provided. Apart from above, the NGOs are encouraged to enrol support of volunteers and raise funds from other sources to run the open shelters,” the RTI reply stated.
A social activist, however, hinted on the misuse of government funds by NGOs and urged the ministry to conduct a strict scrutiny of utilisation of funds.
Psychologists stress on the need for love and warmth for the holistic development of the children. “It is essential that warmth, love and sense of belonging are provided to the children staying in shelter homes. If, for some reason, they are forced to engage in regular chores then a feeling of helplessness takes over them,” said Aarti, a psychologist at Shri Ganga Ram Hospital.