Akhilesh demands probe into 'physical exploitation' of girls at Kanpur shelter home

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday demanded a probe into the alleged physical exploitation of girls at a state-run shelter home, a day after 57 inmates, five of them pregnant, tested positive for COVID-19.

Yadav also claimed that one of the girls tested at the shelter home in Kanpur suffered from AIDS.

The Kanpur district administration on Sunday had clarified that the girls were pregnant at the time they came to the shelter home.

"The news from the government child protection home in Kanpur has created outrage in Uttar Pradesh. There has been a disclosure of some girls being pregnant. Fifty-seven have been found to be suffering from coronavirus and one from AIDS. They should be treated immediately," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

"The government should immediately start a probe against those involved in physical exploitation," he added. Fifty-seven girls, five of them pregnant, at the shelter home in Kanpur district tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, an official had said.

"The five pregnant girls, who have been found COVID-19 positive, were referred by the child welfare committees of Agra, Etah, Kannauj, Firozabad and Kanpur under the POCSO Act. Two other pregnant girls have tested negative for COVID-19. The seven girls were pregnant at the time when they came to the shelter home," Kanpur DM Brahma Dev Ram Tiwari had told reporters.