SC Slams Bihar Govt On Muzzafarpur Shelter Rapes

The Supreme Court on Tuesday lashed out at the Bihar government for the alleged rape of minor girls in a Muzzafarpur shelter home run by an NGO.

The SC said, "It seems that these activities are state financed" and added that women are being raped "left, right and centre" in the country, reported TOI.

Court questions Bihar Govt

The bench, which included Justices M B Lokur, Deepak Gupta and K M Joseph, referred to the National Crime Records Bureau data and said that almost every six hours, a woman is raped in India.

The court also added that in 2016, a total of 38,947 women were raped in the country.

Read Also: Bihar Shelter Home Horror: 40 Girls Raped, One Killed

The court questioned, "Who is giving money to the shelter home in the state?"

It also asked as to why the credentials of the Muzaffarpur NGO running the shelter home weren't checked before allocating them state funds.

Advocate Aparna Bhat, who was appointed amicus curiae in the matter, also disclosed that no compensation has been paid to the alleged victims.

List of do's and don'ts by court

The apex court has told the state government to take action against the wife of the prime accused and arrest her for disclosing the names of the rape victims on her Facebook account.

They also said that proper monitoring of state run NGOs is essential and that CCTV cameras should be installed to prevent incidents like this.

It also came to light that as per the social audit report of NGOs, about 15 such state-funded shelters were under scrutiny in Bihar.

Politics on the issue

After the news about the alleged rape of 34 minor girls at the shelter home broke out, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar blamed it on a "system flaw".

As pressure mounted on social welfare minister Manju Verma to resign, Kumar came to her rescue by saying that he won't remove his minister just on the basis of the allegations being made against him by opposition leaders. He said action will only be taken if Verma is found guilty in the investigations.

Read Also: 11 Women Missing From Another Shelter Home In Bihar

He also said that the government will work to take over the administration of shelter homes and phase out the NGOs.

Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi said, "I have been asking for a scheme where each state should have a single large facility to house all such girls and children which should be run by the state government."

She added that removal of NGOs from the process would reduce the misuse of grants by NGOs and also keep a check on the abuse taking place in such shelters.

Read Also: Govt Tells States To Inspect Child Care Institutions After Bihar Rapes

Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv