Social audit of all shelter homes meant for women, girls mooted

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has decided to conduct a social audit of all shelter homes meant for women and girls in Delhi. This has come against the back drop of the horrendous cases of alleged sexual abuse and rape of 34 minors in  a shelter home in Muzzafurpur district in Bihar and a 10-year-old escapee who reported the plight of the girls who were allegedly sexually exploited in a shelter home in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh.

 Having taken a serious note of the sordid tales of shelter homes being run in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted, “a detailed and thorough investigation of all homes should be done.”

“The Delhi Commission for Women has set up an expert committee consisting of academicians, lawyers, mental health experts and social workers to conduct a detailed social audit of all shelter homes in Delhi and will be submitting its report in 3 months,” DCW spokesperson stated.

DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal said, “The Committee shall undertake comprehensive social audits. Muzzafarpur and Deoria incidents have shocked the entire nation. It is the need of the hour to comprehensively audit the functioning of each and every shelter home in the country.”

“The Committee shall have the mandate to inspect and assess the conditions of government and private run shelter homes for women and girls. The expert committee shall give detailed observations on the condition of girls and women in the homes, the facilities provided in the homes, the security measures undertaken and the rehabilitation program being followed by the shelter homes,” DCW spokesperson stated in their official release.

The Committee stated that they will ensure surprise inspections of shelter homes in Delhi. They also added that the members of the expert committee shall be required to have detailed interviews with the girls and women to properly ascertain the problems existing in the homes, if any were found. 

“The Commission on its own has conducted several inspections in government run shelter homes in Delhi,” DCW Chairperson added.