A first information report filed against an alleged orphanage in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore reads like a horror story, cataloguing the various forms of abuse and assault that 21 minor girls rescued from the institution were subjected to: being forced to parade naked in front of other girls, thrown from the first floor, forced to inhale chilli powder smoke, being burned by hot tongs, and starvation for days, all part of punishments doled out for supposed mistakes.
Filed on Wednesday at Indore’s Vijay Nagar police station, the FIR is based on the statements given by the girls before the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC). It names five women, including the current and former managers and caretakers of the facility, as alleged perpetrators.
The children also alleged that the staff had given away two infants to some people outside the facility and that nobody knew where they were. The staff would also force the children to harm one another, the FIR says. When the children reached out to the NGO’s director Shikha Jain about their ordeal, she did not pay heed to their complaints and asked them to forget everything, the FIR adds.
Facility sealed
On January 12, the CWC raided the Vatsalyapuram facility run by an NGO, after which the administration sealed it for being running illegally. The 21 rescued girls were shifted to other government-run shelter homes.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has reserved its order on the NGO’s habeas corpus petition against the action.
The NGO had moved the court opposing the sealing of the facility, claiming that it was not an orphanage but a hostel and that the children were living there with their parents’ permission.
Counselling for trauma
Speaking to The Hindu, Indore CWC chairperson Pallavi Porwal said that the management used to project the girls as orphans whenever any guests would come to celebrate their birthday or some other occasion at the facility. “But rest of the time, these girls were subjected to third degree torture and abuse for any tiny mistake,” she said. However, she denied that any child had been sexually abused.
Ms. Porwal that the first priority at the moment was to provide care, protection and rehabilitation to the rescued girls. “We will provide them with proper counselling as they are under a lot of trauma,” she said, adding that many of the girls hailed from other districts and that the CWCs of those districts would be contacted to take care of them.
Further legal action will depend on the High Court’s judgement, she added.
