Upset with the lackadaisical attitude of the government, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday said that women and girls are getting raped "left, right and centre" across the country. The SC pulled up the Bihar government for funding an NGO that runs the Muzaffarpur shelter home, where girls were raped and sexually abused. "It (Muzaffarpur) is a horrific incident. We do not want such incidents to repeat in future," the SC bench said about the Muzaffarpur case in which over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the chief of the state-funded NGO.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur asked the Ministry of Women and Child Development to apprise it about the steps that need to be taken to prevent sexual abuse of minors in shelter homes across the country. "What is to be done? Girls and women are getting raped left, right and centre. As per the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data, 38,947 cases of rape were reported in 2016 which means four women are raped every day," the bench comprising justices Deepak Gupta and K M Joseph, said.
The counsel representing Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) said that Muzaffarpur's incident was not the only one in Bihar as out of 110 such NGO-run institutions in the state, "grave concerns" have been raised in about 15 government-funded institutions.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Bihar, said that out of the 15 institutions, FIRs have been lodged in nine matters, including the one in Muzaffarpur shelter home, and people have been arrested in connection with these cases.
The SC bench also directed that minor victims of such crimes should not be interviewed, except by the State child rights bodies, as it would have serious impact on their welfare and mental wellbeing. The SC bench directed the print, electronic and social media not to publish or display photos of victims of sexual abuses, even in a blurred or morphed form, in any case across the country.
The apex court, which took cognisance of the Bihar incident following a letter by a Patna-based man, said that minor victims of sexual abuse could only be interviewed by members of National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and State Commissions For Protection of Child Rights in the presence of trained counsellors.
During the hearing, the SC bench referred to reports about alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a shelter home in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and girls being sold openly in Madhya Pradesh and observed that as per the NCRB statistics, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were the top two states as far as cases of rapes were concerned. "This is a matter of great concern. Somebody has to take action to stop such crimes. Somebody has to do it. Every six hours, a woman is raped in India," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on August 14.
(With Agency Inputs)
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