Bihar government cancels selection of 50 NGOs for running shelter homes

Loktantrik Janata Dal activists protest against the shelter home rape case. Pic/PTI

Bihar has cancelled the selection of 50 NGOs for running shelter homes across the state and announced that the government will run them instead, an official said on Tuesday. The Social Welfare Department will replace the non-government organisations (NGOs) in running all such short stay homes in the state, he added. The state government took the decision keeping in view the over 30 rape cases and death of two women inmates at the Muzaffarpur home.

The Muzaffarpur horror came to the fore following a social audit by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) from Mumbai that pointed at the sorry state of shelter homes run by NGOs in Bihar. "The government has cancelled NGOs selected recently for running the shelter homes. The Social Welfare Department will take over the management in the next three months," the department official said. Till then the NGOs will continue to run these shelter homes.

Earlier in August, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced this. Nearly 100 NGOs continue to run such homes across the state. A 100-page report by TISS had stated that sexual abuse - varying in forms and degrees -- was prevalent in almost all shelter homes in Bihar. The audit was commissioned by the state government in 2017. It was the TISS report that pointed a finger at Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur run by Brajesh Thakur where 34 of the 41 minor girls housed were raped.

Thakur was named the main accused, arrested and jailed along with nine others. State Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma had to resign. The Patna High Court is monitoring the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the incident.

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