Patna: A medical examination conducted by doctors at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) has confirmed rape of 41 girls lodged at a short-stay home in Bihar. All the victims were lodged at the girls’ care home being run by a non-government organisation in Muzaffarpur. The incident had come to light last month.
“The medical test has confirmed the rape of at least 41 girls lodged in the short-stay home,” an unnamed hospital official was quoted as saying on Thursday. Most of the inmates underwent sexual torture, the official added.
PMCH superintendent Dr Rajiv Ranjan Sinha said the report of the medical examination had been sent to the police but refused to divulge the content of the report. “The report is confidential,” Sinha said.
The alleged sexual exploitation of girls came to light after a team from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, which visited the shelter home in February this year in connection with the social audit of the shelter homes running across the state reported abuse of inmates in its report to the state government.
Acting on the report, the police later rescued all the girls and sent them to the hospital for their medical examination. Taking a serious note of the incident, the police have arrested six NGO officials as well some government officials.
The Patna High court too has taken a very serious note of the incident and directed the petitioner as well the respondents which included the state government to make the state legal services authority a party in the case so that a proper direction could be passed in it. The case had been filed by Krishna Deo Mishra, a child right activist.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has ordered the officials to deal sternly with the cases of sexual abuse. The government is also considering to deploy eunuchs for the security of girl inmates at government-run short-stay homes jolted by reports of sexual abuse at the shelter homes.
“It will be like killing two birds with one stone. The transgender will have a job opportunity and the government can rely more on them for girls’ security owing to their disinterest in sexual matters,” social welfare department secretary Atul Prasad has told the media.
Right now, the social welfare department is operating short-stay homes for destitute and socially abandoned children in 28 out of Bihar’s total 38 districts.
