Management at Nirbhaya home in dire straits

Thiruvananthapuram: With disillusionment among inmates spreading like a malignancy, the Social Justice Department has decided to review the inmate management strategy followed in the Home.

There are two options before the authorities: segregate the girls according to the nature of abuse and transfer the girls who are not victims of violent abuse or sex trafficking to a normal Children’s Home or persist with the status quo but provide counselling to the victims of love affairs and quickly restore them to their home.

The first option is riddled with dangers. “The inmates of children’s homes are destitute and orphaned girls who are in need of care and protection. There have been instances, even recently, when such girls have turned sexual predators of girls in children’s homes,” a top Department source said.

The Department, therefore, is inclined towards the second option of providing counselling even while retaining the status quo. But counselling has thrown up disappointing results.

 “They believe that they have not done anything wrong. It is hard to convince them that their men had villainous intentions,” a senior Home official said.
It should be noted that all the girls who had attempted to escape the Home are love affair victims.