ROURKELA: A team of officers inspected the educational institution of Good News India Dream Centre at Lathikata in Sundargarh district on Tuesday. The NGO is in the thick of controversy following allegations of sexual abuse of girl inmates at its shelter home in Dhenkanal.
Sundargarh District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Sribanta Jena, Protection Officer of Institutional Care Ananta Parua, a lady counseller of District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Chairman Basanta Mallick and two male and female CWC Members conducted the joint inspection following an instruction from Sundargarh Collector Surendra Kumar Meena. They also recorded statements of students staying in the hostel.
The DCPO informed that the two-storey educational building houses 115 inmates including 65 girls, all aged between six and 19 years. Seven staff including four women stay in the institute’s campus. The officials found no instance of sexual abuse.
Jena said Good News India gets funding from missionaries and is registered under Societies Act in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, but has not taken permission from the local administration or Odisha Government to run the educational institution. The DCPO claimed that the institution does not come under the purview of Juvenile Justice Act as there was no student in the category of ‘child needing care and protection’. The inmates either belonged to single parents, double parents or extended families. A report has been submitted to the district administration.