A special investigation report detailing the circumstances that led to the missing of six girls from the Vellimadukunnu Government Children’s Home has been submitted to District Police Chief (Kozhikode city) A.V. George.
The report with suggestions to rectify the existing issues at the institution was prepared by a team of senior officials comprising representatives of the police and heads of various government-level committees constituted for the protection of women and children.
One of the major suggestions apart from the improvement of physical amenities and safety measures was the introduction of co-education system for the children’s home students. Gender divide and the lack of avenues for co-learning were found to be affecting the children’s behaviour and personality. The report suggested that the children should get more common platforms in a healthy way to end the gender divide and discrimination.
An officer who was part of the investigation team said there were also recommendations to improve the existing amenities for indoor and outdoor entertainments. “During the field-level inspections, we could find that the students were badly missing such de-stressing opportunities to channelise their energy to positive activities,” he said.
Surveillance issues
A major safety issue highlighted in the report was the lack of a proper closed-circuit television camera surveillance and fortified compound wall for the children’s home. The committee also found that there was no official mechanism in place to monitor or record the entry and exit of children on a daily basis. They suggested the authorities to make some of the officials accountable for monitoring the same and quickly report safety-related issues to the higher authorities.
The investigation was conducted under a team of police officials led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) A. Umesh. It was on January 26 that the six girls escaped from the children’s home and later brought back to the city. The team had interacted with the rescued girls, their parents and the officials at the children’s home.
According to officials, the final report was submitted on Thursday with the inputs from Child Welfare Committee Chairman P.M. Thomas and Woman and Child Protection Officer Abdul Bari. Assistant Commissioner (Medical College) K. Sudarshan, Chevayur Station House Officer P. Chandramohan and Sub Inspector P. Radhakrishnan of Anti-Human Trafficking Unit were the other officers who took part in the investigation.
