Sunday Times 2
Squalid, illegal children’s home in India
View(s):29 Indian girls as young as five were found with 600 empty liquor bottles, one broken toilet and in the care of a teenage boy
By Steve Nolan
Almost 30 young children were found living in one room and sharing one broken toilet between them after an illegal care home for poor tribal girls was raided in India.
Police officers and representatives from the Child Rights Commission found 29 girls, all aged between five and 14, living in squalid conditions in the home in Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan in the north west of the country.
Rotting: Old vegetables were found in the home, along with dozens of liquor bottles and a broken toilet
Police found more than 600 empty alcohol bottles and only rotten vegetables in a store cupboard at the Grace Home.
The girls, who were put in the home with promises of education, food and care, were being looked after by a 14-year-old boy and were not allowed to contact their families, according to NDTV.
The children, all from Christian families, were never sent to school and no teacher ever attended the home.
The Child Rights Commission raided the home on Tuesday after parents complained when one child died and the building was surveyed by officers for a month.
The man who ran the home, which was based in a two-bedroom rented house in the city, has been arrested by police.
He reportedly owns a second home for boys in Jaipur from which 15 children have been rescued.
Deepak Kalra, chairman of the Child Rights Commission told NDTV: ‘They stay in the hall and study by themselves. The older children teach the younger ones.
‘There is no female warden or domestic help to take care of them and no registration papers.’
According to Indian law, all children’s homes in the country are meant to be registered with the government so that they can be monitored and authorities can ensure that residents are being properly looked after.
Residents living close to the home claim that they never saw any youngsters allowed out to play in the garden or a park close to the building.
The rescued children have been moved to different shelters and will be given medical check ups and counseling.
Police are to investigate the source of the home’s funding.
© Daily Mail, London
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