Telangana: Shutdown of illegal shelter homes in force for few months

HYDERABAD: Despite illegal shelter homes getting shut periodically for not complying to rules of Juvenile Justice Act, and having cases registered against them, within few months of shutting operations they are seen to be resurfacing again.

This trend came to light after a shelter home in Vanasthalipuram - ‘Gracious Paradise’ - was seized by revenue officials on Thursday.

The same shelter home was shut only six months ago by the District Child Welfare Committee for illegal detention of children and forcing them into beggary, under Section 76 of Juvenile Justice Act. An FIR was also registered with Vanasthalipuram police station on December 14.

However, it managed to re-open again. “Last time we had not seized the property. We only cancelled their licence back then and filed FIR. But they managed to get out on bail and restart operations,” said Devendra Chary, District Child Protection Officer. “It is the failure of the system due to which wrongdoers rarely face the music. Since the main affected are children, who are mostly orphans or underprivileged, there is nobody to demand justice for them,” said Achyuta Rao, child rights activist, who had initially filed a complaint against this particular home in December after which an FIR was lodged.

This is not a lone case. Previously, a shelter home named Aadarana home at LB Nagar was shut down after allegations of sexual abuse came to fore. Even though the shelter home was shut and accused arrested, they got a free hand to start another home in Karimnagar.

Meanwhile, the authorities at District Child welfare are still clueless on whether the three accused person would restart their operations again or not. “We couldn’t file a case on them as previous case was pending. If they try to apply for a licence again, they would not get one,” added Devendra Chary.