Dear Editor,
Minor girls and women have reportedly been subjected to prolonged sexual abuse, mostly at the hands of powerful men in shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It is a shame that child shelter homes at Muzaffarpur in Bihar and at Deoria in Uttar Pradesh have been used for sexual exploitation of children.
Surprisingly, adverse reports on those shelter homes had allegedly been ignored. While the Muzaffarpur Social Welfare Department had given an adverse report on the shelter home, the Deoria shelter continued to flourish even after the suspension of its licence.
Be it cruel exploitation of children in shelter homes or callous attitude in controlling those homes or engaging children in labour or keeping millions of children hungry in our country and thus making their growth stunted forever – everywhere we fail our children.
Children do not have voting rights. But if political leaders keep on neglecting our future citizens, then India will become stunted and traumatized. How can a country be strong if its children are malnourished, stunted, unskilled and traumatized?
Sincerely,
Sujit De, Kolkata