Plight of Abused Minors Neglected BJP

BHUBANESWAR: The women wing of the State BJP on Tuesday slammed the Naveen Patnaik Government for its apathy towards minor girl students who became pregnant while studying in residential schools.

Claiming that 17 minor girl students of different tribal residential schools are victims of sexual exploitation by school staff and a few of them have become unwed mothers, BJP Mahila Morcha president Srimantini Jena told a media conference that the State Government has miserably failed to ensure safety of inmates of residential schools run by the ST and SC Development Department. While the BJD Government is boasting about women empowerment, girl students in residential schools remained unsafe and insecure.

“There is neither any system to monitor safety and security of the students nor regular check-up of their health even after shocking incidents of minor tribal girls delivering babies in Ashram schools in Koraput district coming to the fore,” Jena said after visiting two Ashram schools.

A seven-member women BJP delegation, led by Jena, visited houses of Class-VI student of Umuri Ashram School in Jeypore block of Koraput district, who delivered a boy on February 4. The team also met parents of Class-VIII student of Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Koraput who had also become mother of a baby girl.

 Alleging that the Government has not extended any medical or financial assistance to the victims, Jena said none of the officials of the district welfare office has bothered to find out the condition of the girls and the newborn babies. She urged the Government to provide financial assistance to the victims and the District Welfare Officer should be directed to take care of the medical needs of the young girls and their children, Jena said.

Since the girls are interested to pursue their studies, the State Government should make necessary arrangements to take care of their babies so that the girls could complete their school education, she said.

As the girl students of residential schools under ST&SC Development Department are not secure, the Government should make necessary security arrangement and local academic committee be formed to look after welfare of the students, Jena added.

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