Head of illegal city children’s home arrested

BHUBANESWAR: Head of an illegal children home run by Shri Anand Mission Ashram situated at Damana in the city was arrested by the police here on Thursday. District administration declared the children home as illegal and head of the Ashram Sridhar Satpathy was forwarded to the court.  

In a raid by Khurda Sub-collector and Children Care on the children home run by Shri Anand Mission Ashram situated at Damana in the city, 57 children were rescued from the home on Wednesday. The home was functioning allegedly for 13 years, sources said. After the raid, the children were handed over to Child Welfare Council (CWC) officials for counseling.

Out of the total 107 children staying in the home, 13 were girls of 5-16 age group and 44 boys of 10-18 age groups. The home was providing sub-standard food and the proper guideline was not followed, the officials, who conducted the raid, said. However, the caretaker and authority denied the allegation.   

“The children home was completely an unregistered organisation for which that is being closed. The rescued students and other students who were staying in the Ashram will be rehabilitated in different Sebashrams of respective districts and the students of general categories will be settled in some reputed and registered NGOs,” informed Khurda sub-collector Saroj Kumar Samal.

On the other hand, the head of the Ashram did not agree with the allegation brought by the district administration and the care taker of the Ashram said they were not aware about the complicated guidelines of the Government. According to the CWC officials, due to the Government negligence, children homes are not getting license in proper time though they applied for license.

According to a data given by Women and Child Development Department, 133 Ashrams have license to run their children home. Out of that 130 children homes and three Balashrams were registered, while 160 children homes in 14 districts are illegally run by some organisations, it added.