Telangana’s shelter homes will be at government's fingertips now
HYDERABAD: In the wake of Bihar’s shelter home sexual abuse case, the Women Development and Child Welfare Department of Telangana has now added an extra layer of surveillance on the 455 Child Care Institutions (CCI) in the State. These CCIs will now be linked to a portal which would be accessible only to the government, to oversee registration and permission processes.
In the CCI Registration Management System, each of the shelter homes will now have to upload details of children they shelter. “We want the system to be transparent. The system will be a foolproof one, in which we will be able to know which institution, if any, has failed to meet standards,” said Viziendra Boyi, director of WDCWD, Telangana.
He said that before this system, it was the district child protection officer’s and various child welfare committees’ prerogative to visit shelter homes in their districts. “The new mechanism puts the shelters homes under proper scrutiny,” he said.
“After the shelter homes’ administrators apply on the portal, a provisional certificate will be generated for them, which will be valid for a period of six months. In this period, the local assigned district child protection officers and other authorities will visit the homes in each of the 31 districts and make a judgement on whether they can be allotted a permanent registration for five years,” said Venkata Swamy, Programme Manager, Integrated Child Protection Scheme.
With pictures of the home and details put up online, the DCPOs can also update comments on the same, which could be useful feedback for shelter homes. Since the portal was opened, the welfare department has received over 120 registrations and is scrutinising the entries. “We plan to complete this exercise by September first week. Incase any irregularities are found, they will be served a show-cause notice. They can also face complete closure if they are found to be in gross violation of rules,” added Venkataswamy.
However, activists allege this may not necessarily streamline all illegal homes that operate in the State.
“Many shelter homes don’t even know they are supposed to be registered with the government. How will they even reach or access this website?” asked noted child welfare activist Achutya Rao. He added that no shelter home in the State had put up boards with proper registration numbers and licence numbers for general public to question or report them. “Most of these homes crop up in residential areas and public is not even aware about them. In such cases, one can hardly question them about their licences,” he added.
Trying to avoid another Muzzafarpur
A shelter home in Muzzafarpur turned into a house of horrors as girls aged between 7-18 years, alleged that they were drugged, starved and beaten up and forced into sexual exploitation