After Kendrapara case, Odisha govt orders probe of all CCIs in state

BHUBANESWAR: In wake of the alleged sexual assault of a minor girl at a shelter home in Kendrapara, the state government has directed immediate inspection of every institution housing children in all 30 districts.In a letter to the district collectors, commissioner-cum-secretary of Women and Child Development department, Mrinalini Darswal has asked them to personally supervise the exercise and immediately visit every home, hostel, shelter, ashram, orphanage and residential facility where children are being kept. She stressed that no category should be exempted and no institution omitted on the ground that it is not formally registered as a child care institution (CCI).The move came after a 16-year-old tribal girl from Jharkhand, residing at a government-funded shelter home in Kendrapara was allegedly sexually assaulted multiple times at the facility. The matter came to light recently after she was found to be around four months pregnant, said police. A watchman and a 13-year-old inmate were taken into custody, while other inmates were shifted to another facility.Darswal directed that institutions operating without registration be sealed and prosecution launched against those running them under the POCSO Act with applicable provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. She said existing provisions under the Juvenile Justice Act and POCSO Act were adequate, but their enforcement needed to be strengthened.She instructed that all inspections be recorded on the AWESOME application, discontinuing paper inspections. District Child Protection Units and Child Welfare Committees are to be fully deployed, while collectors can draw on Mission Vatsalya funds for mobility. Joint teams with police should be formed wherever necessary, particularly to identify unregistered institutions, Darswal added.