NEW DELHI: In order to assess the prevalence of sexual violence in children’s shelter homes across the country, Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan — a platform working towards ending sexual violence — will conduct a survey among people who have lived in such shelter homes.
Surveyors will reach out to around 500 respondents who left shelter homes between the last four to five years when they were living there as children and teenagers.
“These interviews will be conducted through questionnaires. We are gathering the data of children from shelter homes. Some of the respondents will now be adults as the study will reach out to those who may have left the shelter home till five years back,” said Ashif Shaikh, convenor, Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan (RGA).
The objective of the survey would be to assess the scale of the problem of sexual violence in shelter homes and to draw from the responses of the interviewees on how they think the violence could have been stopped and what would contribute to an enabling environment for survivors to speak out against abuse.
The survey will reach out to people who have earlier lived in state-run, NGO-run and community-run shelter homes and hostels for children. The nature of sexual violence they have faced would also be analysed.
As a part of the survey, RGA will analyse 20 registered cases of sexual violence in shelter homes across five states in the country.
The states which will be covered are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and West Bengal.
In this part, the survivors would be interviewed and stakeholders would also be involved in order to arrive at a qualitative analysis.
The final report is likely to be completed by March this year.