BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Wednesday banned NGO Adarsh Sishu Mandir for allegedly subjecting mentally-challenged inmates to harassment at its rehab facility ‘Samartha’ in Sambalpur in January this year.
In a letter to all district collectors, the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department informed that the NGO has been prohibited from running any programmes and discontinue all its existing programmes across the state for infringement of guidelines on rehabilitation of persons with mental illness.
The organisation has been accused of engaging in appalling inhuman activities like torture, physical assaults etc, towards the inmates of the rehab home, in violation of section-3 of RPwD Act-2016, and depriving an individual to live with dignity, the department said.
Earlier in January, disturbing videos of inmates being subjected to abuse at a rehabilitation centre came to light sparking widespread outrage.
In the videos, inmates can be seen brutally thrashed at the centre ‘Samartha’. The perpetrators, suspected to be the staff of the facility, can also be seen verbally abusing the inmates while serving food.
It is being alleged that the inmates were not being provided proper food and medicines. The centre was then housing 44 inmates. Subsequently, the inmates were shifted to another facility and two persons of the rehab centre arrested.