Karnataka - Mangalore   

Rescued children face bleak future

MANGALORE: Chairman of the Dakshina Kannada Juvenile Justice Board and Chief Judicial Magistrate A.N. Pattan on Sunday visited the three sisters who were rescued from the streets of Mangalore on Friday by the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

Mr. Pattan is in the process of compiling a “brief report” on the case which he will submit to Chairman of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority V. Gopal Gowda. In addition to documenting the entire story of the children, the report will also feature recommendations for their future.

Mr. Pattan said that Mr. Gowda had taken suo motu action in this case based on the report that appeared in The Hindu on Sunday.

However, as of now, the future of Sheila (9), Ammu (7) and Shilpa (5) seems uncertain. “We can provide shelter to these children only for two or three days more,” said Chairperson of the CWC Hilda Rayappan.

She said that according to the law the children can be under the care of the CWC only during the period of the inquiry. In fact, strictly speaking, the girls are not even supposed to be kept at the short-stay home where they are now housed. “We are authorised to provide shelter for girls above 15 years,” Ms. Rayappan said.

Pointing out that the short-stay home is being run by an non-governmental organisation, she said no such shelter was run by the Department for the Women and Child Welfare.

The next best option, said Ms. Rayappan, was the bridge school for out of school children under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

“But these children are scarred, physically and mentally. They are addicted to intoxicants and a certain wayward lifestyle. The bridge school is not equipped to handle these complications,” she said. The bridge school is also not adequately guarded, and the children might run away, she said.

According to Ms. Rayappan, there used to be a government reception shelter for women and children in distress established on a-half-acre campus in Vamanjoor on the outskirts of the city. “But the Department of Women and Child Welfare converted it into a storehouse over a year ago,” she said.

During a visit by The Hindu on Sunday, the girls appeared to have overcome some of their initial trauma. They were talking freely and smiling.

They had received chocolates, bindis, bangles, hair bands, lipstick and nail polish as gifts.

But Ms. Rayappan was a little concerned because Sheila and Ammu did not show much interest in any of the other gifts and were content with the chocolate. For nearly two years the three girls had been dressing as boys to avoid unnecessary attention. Ms. Rayappan was worried that this may have altered the girls’ perception of themselves.

When a Bangalore-based psychologist was consulted, she told The Hindu that the girls face the risk of what is loosely described as gender identity crisis.

“The relative safety that they enjoyed on the streets by impersonating as boys might have convinced them at the subconscious level that they are indeed male,” she said and added that they needed immediate counselling.

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