Nitish Kumar falters in his response to the shelter home abuses

The Supreme Court’s shocked reaction to Bihar police’s inability to trace the whereabouts of ex-cabinet minister Manju Verma will come as an embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government. The minister had to resign after her husband’s name cropped up in the case relating to the sexual assault on 34 inmates of an NGO-run shelter home for orphaned girls in Muzaffarpur. Later an Arms Act case was lodged against the couple following which she went missing.

More disconcerting than the minister going absconding is the reported failure on the part of the government to take action against officials of 14 other shelter homes where abuse was reported in the TISS social audit that blew the lid on the horrifying human rights violations. Taken together, there seems to be no interest in the Bihar government to identify wrongdoers or fix a completely broken system.

Nitish Kumar’s claims of sushasan raj are undermined by such failures. These destitute children in shelter homes are the weakest of the weak and the so-called social justice politics of socialist parties like JD(U) look hollow in the light of the inaction in the present case. The fact that Verma belonged to the JD(U) compounds the ignominy. With Nitish holding charge of the home ministry the failure to nab Verma and probe the other shelter homes lands squarely at his door. With just two more years left for the government’s tenure to end, strong action on the shelter home abuse cases will help go a long way to restoring public confidence.