Odisha: Centre orders probe into Beltikiri shelter home sexual abuse case

BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has ordered a probe into the alleged sexual harassment of inmates in a shelter home in Dhenkanal district and asked the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to inspect all such homes in the state.

In a letter addressed to chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday, Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi described it as “a matter of great concern” while stating, “I have asked secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, to get an inquiry conducted in this case. I have also asked the NCPCR to get all the homes in Odisha inspected immediately.”

Allegations of sexual harassment and alleged religious conversions have surfaced from Dream Home, a shelter run by NGO Good News India at Beltikiri village of Dhenkanal district.

Gandhi said, “It is shocking that such horrors were being carried out in a location situated only 10km away from the Dhenkanal district Collectorate and SP office.”

Stating that she was “profusely aggrieved” about the incident, Maneka pointed out how ‘Good News India’ was running these homes for past two years without registration under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

She lashed out at the state government by saying, “Odisha women and child development minister and district child protection officer have confirmed that the license for this shelter home had expired last month. This is a gross violation of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and highlights a lack of oversight by state government authorities on statutory compliance for running a shelter home.”

Gandhi said she got horrified to learn that the NGO in question is currently operating more than 25 such shelter homes in Odisha. “This incident is revealing of a deep and utter failure on the part of the state government in taking basic precautionary measures for the safety and welfare of children, leading to such a heinous incident,” she said in the letter.

Meanwhile, Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking his intervention for fair probe into alleged forced religious conversions and human trafficking by the NGO, whose founder Faiz Rahman is also under scanner for sexual harassment of girls in a shelter home run by the organisation.

In the letter, he also stated that the NGO is running an illegal shelter home at Beltikiri. “It is pertinent to mention that flow of foreign funds to the NGO is very high and is running 26 shelter homes in the state of Odisha out of which 15 are illegal,” the letter read.