New Delhi: The NHRC has called for reports on the branches of an orphanage in Jodhpur, Surat, Kolkata and Bengaluru from the state governments concerned after an FIR was registered against its Indore branch on the allegations of child atrocities.
In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that the children aged between four and 14 years were being subjected to torture at an orphanage in Indore, Madhya Pradesh and the police have registered an FIR in the matter on a complaint by the Child Welfare Committee.
Apart from Indore, the orphanage has its branches in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, Gujarat’s Surat, Kolkata and Bengaluru, the NHRC said.
The commission said it has observed that the content of the news report, if true, “amounts to serious violation of human rights of the inmates at the orphanage”.
Noting that the matter has inter-state ramification, the human rights panel has said that an enquiry/ inspection of the other branches of the orphanage, situated outside Indore, is also necessary.
It has issued notices to the chief secretaries and the directors general of police of the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal and Karnataka calling for an action taken report in the matter after conducting an enquiry or inspection of the branches of the orphanage mentioned in the news report. They are expected to submit their detailed reports, including the action taken against the responsible persons, within four weeks.
The chief secretary and DGP of Madhya Pradesh are also directed to indicate the further steps taken in the matter, within four weeks.
Minor girls at an Indore “orphanage” narrated tales of abuse and alleged horrifying ways of punishment, including branding with hot tongs, hanging them upside down and forced to inhale smoke from burning red chilies, prompting the local administration to seal the facility and the police to file an FIR against five women.
As the shocking tales, recounted by the inmates before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) surfaced, an FIR was registered against five women associated with the facility for allegedly ill-treating children in the name of punishment, a police official had said last week.
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