August 7, 2018

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the alleged rapes of minor girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home run by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) & raised question over their funding.

The Supreme Court harshly criticised the Bihar Government for the alleged rapes of minor girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home run by an NGO, saying, "it seems that these activities are state sponsored" & adding that women are being raped "left, right & centre" in the country.

The SC bench comprising Justice M B Lokur, Justice Deepak Gupta & newly appointed Justice K M Joseph expressed grave concern about what's happening to women in the country. It referred to National Crime Records Bureau data & said that every 6 hours, a woman is raped in India. The Court said 38,947 women were raped in India in 2016.

"What is to be done? Girls and women are getting raped left, right and centre," the bench said.

The Apex Court asked, "Who is giving money to the shelter home in the state? Why the credentials of institution running shelter home not checked before it was provided funds."

Meanwhile, advocate Aparna Bhat, who was appointed as an amicus curiae in the case, told the Court that no compensation has been paid to the alleged victims of sexual assault at the Muzaffarpur shelter home.

The SC was also told that the Muzaffarpur-based NGO is not the only one which is facing allegation of rape incidents, as the social audit report of NGOs pointed out 15 similar state-funded institutions in Bihar were under scrutiny.

The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was 1st highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai to the state's social welfare department in April.

Justice Madan B. Lokur said that a proper monitoring of these NGO run shelter homes must be done on day-to-day basis.

The Supreme Court also made it clear that to prevent & not to repeat such kind of incidents, CCTVs should be installed within the premises.

On a related note, Bihar Police has found 1 out of the 11 women, who went missing from another shelter home of prime accused Brajesh Thakur in Muzaffarpur.

This Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Rape Case has put Nitish Kumar government in Bihar under the spotlight.

So far, 11 employees of the shelter home have been arrested & 44 girls have been rescued. The shelter home was run by Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused in the case who is behind bars now. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken charge of the case now.

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