NEW DELHI — Survivors of a particularly grim corner of India’s welfare system have been awarded thousands of dollars in compensation, a national human rights body announced this week. Fourteen former residents of a north Indian homeless shelter for girls suffered horrific conditions, many were sexually assaulted.
Shelters for women or girls are often overcrowded and dangerous. They typically house victims of domestic abuse and sex trafficking.
The case involving the shelter in Bihar, north India, that paid the compensation was especially striking due to the sheer number of victims. According to police, 34 victims were raped over a long period of time by shelter workers and officials from the state welfare department. One of the raped victims was as young a 10-year-old; the oldest was 19.
An independent auditor’s 2018 report revealing the scope of the abuse at the shelter, in the city of Muzaffarpur, prompted national outrage. Federal investigators opened an inquiry that resulted in the conviction of 19 people, including the shelter’s director, Brajesh Thakur.
They were found guilty in 2020 of offenses that ranged from negligence of duty to group rape. Twelve of the defendants, including Mr. Thakur received life sentences.
While it is not the first time states have paid compensation to victims of sexual abuse in government-licensed shelters this is the largest case, both in terms of the number of victims and the amount of the payouts. It signals a partial reckoning with the government’s responsibility amid an epidemic of sexual violence in India, even as other high-profile cases are prompting demands for judicial reform. The same year that the Muzaffarpur case surfaced, the nation’s Supreme Court established national guidelines for government compensation to other victims of sexual violence in the state’s care.
All 49 girls who lived in the shelter in 2018 were awarded compensation. This was in accordance with the recommendation of National Human Rights Commission, which is an independent body that opened an investigation into the case. According to a statement released by the commission this week, they were each awarded between $4,000 – $12,000 each.
The abuse was uncovered in 2018 during the Bihar government’s first independent audit of its social welfare institutions.
The Muzaffarpur shelter, which housed runaways and other destitute girls picked up by police in Bihar, was located in Mr. Thakur’s family compound, next to his three-story home and his father’s printing press. Residents were housed on the top floor without windows of a decaying building. The windows on the lower floors were protected by bars.
It was one among many such shelters that were outsourced by the Bihar government and private contractors. The auditor, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, reported that abuse was rampant throughout the state’s shelters, but singled out the Thakur one as particularly bad. It was notable for “carrying out sexual violence on the girls, all of a tender age and from marginalized backgrounds, in the name of punishment and discipline,” the audit said. “The girls reported that they were molested by the male staff on a regular basis.”
The auditors also noted that conditions at the shelter were “extremely deplorable,” that the residents were locked in their wards except for meals and that they had no access to open space or opportunities for recreation.
Although the shelter opened in 2013, it is not clear if conditions were better in the past.
Many former residents testified before the court that they were repeatedly raped and assaulted by both shelter staff and child welfare department personnel. They described being beaten with sticks, or scalded by hot water for offenses such as resisting sexual abuse or asking for food.
Among the state welfare officials convicted in the case was Rosy Rani, an assistant director, who was accused of failing to notify the police or in any other way responding to the victims’ complaints. She was sentenced to a six-month term in prison and is now contesting her termination from her government job.
A state welfare department officer filed a police complaint after the audit. Protesters demonstrated in Patna, Bihar’s capital, and in New Delhi. Thirteen welfare officers were suspended, and the state’s social welfare minister was forced to resign.
The victims, none able to be reached for comment this weeks, scattered after the Muzaffarpur Shelter was closed when the trial began. (It was later demolished.
Three of them went on to another shelter for girls and women run by a Christian charity based in Patna. The victim was 16 years old and gave testimony to police. She also spoke to The New York Times.
“Brajesh sir raped me. Repeatedly. He would rape you twice, sometimes three times per week. If I dared resist, I would be beaten up black and blue,” said the girl, whom Indian law prohibits from being identified.
Source: NY Times