A 14-year-old victim of sexual abuse, who gave birth to a baby girl last month, may not be receiving proper care, rehabilitation or counseling, alleges an activist tracking the case.
Child rights activist A Narayanan has filed a petition in the Madras high court requesting a court order directing the police to produce the minor victim, her baby and seven other children rescued from the Good Shepherd Children's Home near Selaiyur in July this year.
He wants the children to receive counselling, interim relief, medical treatment, and rehabilitation. The 14year-old girl “requires proper counseling to make her understand that as she herself is a victim and a child, she needs the support of others to complete her studies and rehabilitation,“ he said.
Narayanan asserts that the police should have produced the children before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Kancheepuram as the home was within its jurisdiction. Instead, they handed over the children to their parents, without counseling or verification, he alleged.
Based on a complaint by doctors at the hospital where the girl delivered her child, police arrested one of the owners of the unauthorized Selaiyur home, a 65-year old pastor Prabhudass for sexually abusing the girl. With an order from the Judicial Magistrate in Tambaram, the police then placed the girl and her baby at the Kellys Government Children's Home. As it did not have proper facilities, they were sent to an NGO in Jawahar Nagar.
A CWC Chennai official who did not wish to be named said since the victim delivered the baby in a Government hospital in Chennai, the case is under their jurisdiction.The official claims that CWC Chennai did conduct an enquiry . “I have met the girl three times so far. She is in a rehab centre, she is being counseled. She does not want to part with her baby . As for her education, we are talking to her about it and we will take a decision closer to June,“ the official said.
