Rescue Junction Supports Street Children in India

Hello Everyone!

It’s time for an update again

How are you all? as always, our best wishes  go to you all with our appreciation for your interest in and support for our work here at the Junction.

Since our last report it was our pleasure to welcome Kavita from Global Giving who spent some time visiting the project.

Here’s what he had to say after his time with us ..

“People First Educational Charitable Trust has a competent, dedicated and experienced team who are doing ground-breaking work in Bihar. In the effort to make our society a safe space for every child, People First is doing its part with utmost sincerity”.

Thank you Kavita!

We want to you every single rupee donated is used with the utmost care for the maximum benefit for the children and once again we thank you all for your compassion and kindness.

Thank you all

Riya

Hello Everyone

My name is Mr Singh.

I am one of the workers here at Rescue Junction.

I send my greeting to you.

For example here are two stories from children who have come to Rescue Junction just in the last week only.

Rithik 11 years old- A cruel stepmother

Rithik’s father remarried and moved away from his home village. His new stepmother regularly beat him for the crime of trying to go to school instead of doing housework. Unable to bear the constant abuse he ran away and was spotted on the station by a member of our staff alone and crying. He was bought to the protective care of the Junction where our case workers are considering the best options for him.

Ajit 12 years old – working his childhood away at 18 hours a day  

An orphan Ajit a street child was captured by chid traffickers who sold him to a factory owner where he was made to work from 6am to 11am every single day except Sunday for which he was never paid he got only basic food.  He tried to run away and was beaten, after which he was chained to his bed at night. He managed to use a co- worker’s phone and phoned the toll free childline number which he had seen in a discarded newspaper at the factory. As a resukt of his call within 48 hours over 50 children were rescued from the factory in a police raid and the owners are in custody.

Please help us continue our important work, and we thank you for your support We have changed the names of these children according to our best practices protocol.

Hello Everyone…

This is Riya with another update from Rescue Junction

It has as always been a very busy time. As regular readers will know very sadly there is a big scandal here in Bihar in incidents of child abuse in other residential children’s homes, ( not connected with People First) , and this is subject to a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) full enquiry which is ongoing.

As Rescue Junction is considered a safe place for child protection and care we have now much increased admissions, as other homes in the area have been completely closed down by the government.

 We are as always working with the authorities and law enforcement agencies to tackle child abuse wherever it occurs and we thank you for your support for same.

As we look back over the past year, we have been able to help protect and care hundreds of children.

Our anti child begging campaign (which is still open on GlobalGiving) has not received the support of previous years and with our limited resources this has also limited our work in this regard but we are doing what we can. If you are able to help a link to the campaign appeal is included below in the links.

Our main report picture is of child labourers on platform number one at Gaya Junction . We have hidden the faces because legal action against the traffickers is ongoing.

May we wish you a Happy New year and hope that 2019 will be a great year for you.

Once again thank you all for your support,

Riya

Links:

• Please Visit us, our website is lonely... UPDATED ON MOBILE!!
• Anti Child Begging appeal 2018

Hello Everyone,

This  is Riya from the Gaya Rescue project with another update.

Attention Please!   care, protection help and support has now arrived on platform number one!

I am so pleased to announce in cooperation with the authorities a child help desk is now on Gaya Station. How wonderful that we are able to do this… gone are the days when there was no help for children and all of us here at People First are so proud of our role in making things so much better for vulnerable children in the district. This would not have been possible without your support.

Sanjay’s Story

Sanjay's father works as a daily wage earner in his own village, his mother is disabled with both feet, and the financial condition of his family being very pathetic So the child went to work with a person named Ryan in the factory of Jaipur one and a half years ago, after being rescued by Jaipur Police he came back to his home with the help of People First staff.

            Due to extreme poverty again he went to Firojpur for work, and the owner of that factory beat him daily , and he ran away from there and tried to come back home ,but he missed the way and reached to Hanumangadh dist. (Rajasthan). He was discovered wandering by a concerned member of the public and he informed a local reputable NGO. This Organisation referred him to us and handed him over to Rescue Junction to beproduced before CWC Gaya. We are now placing Sanjay in our supportive school’s programme and he will be returning home under supervision and regular follow up visits and support from the Rescue Junction staff to make sure he picks up his studies, and is never the victim of child labour again. We have changed his name but what will shock you is his age ... just 13.

Thank you all so much.

Just a reminder that Winter will be here very soon and our annual appeal to keep children warm and safe this winter is now live on Global Giving.

Be the first to donate!

With much appreciation.

Riya

Links:

• Please Visit us, our website is lonely

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN : INSTITUTIONAL CHILD ABUSE IN BIHAR

Hello Everyone

This Riya from Rescue Junction.

I write this update with much sadness. 

After all the achievements and progress towards child protection in Bihar news of widespread serious abuse and harm within shelter homes run by other NGOS (with state government money) has come to light. The scale of this abuse is beyond words, terrible physical and sexual abuse, drugs given, rooms for forced abortions, even accusations of murder.

It has quite rightly caused a national outcry. 

Over 14 NGOs have been named, all receiving state government grants and using them in the worst case to run a child brothel, with violence perpetuated against the children if they dared complain.

There is sense of terrible shock here amongst the staff and much sadness.

 Let me state clearly no complaint has  ever been received concerning children at Rescue Junction.  

People First and the staff here at Junction are proud of our exemplary record of protecting children from wherever they come. We are proud of our transparency, honesty, and willingness to report child abuse wherever and whenever we find it.

With your help we will continue this work to the very best of ability, and without fear, favour or prejudice.

We thank you for your support, it is needed now more than ever,

Riya

This is a press article from India Today..

Heads have started rolling in Bihar shelter-home rape case. Fourteen officials have been suspended by the Bihar government for negligence and dereliction of duty. But it took nearly four months for the Nitish Kumar government to prima facie identify the officials at fault in a case of alleged rape of 34 girls aged between seven and 17 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.

Medical reports have so far confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls. The probe into the sex scandal has been handed over to the CBI. At least 10 accused have been arrested till date.

The Muzaffarpur shelter-home rape case is one of the cases of abuse at shelter homes and short-stay homes in Bihar. It all began with a report by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which blew the lid over an organised sex scandal in Bihar run by people having connections with the powers that be in the state.

Why did TISS conduct an audit?

The Bihar government indirectly runs around 110 short-stay and shelter homes for homeless girls, women, boys and juveniles in conflict with law. These shelter homes are funded by the Bihar government and managed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Their funding is decided by the Bihar government based on their performance report.

The Bihar government had asked the TISS to conduct an audit of the short-stay and shelter homes in August 2017. The TISS audit report was submitted in April.

The TISS report pointed to sexual exploitation and physical abuse at six short-stay homes and 14 shelters. The first FIR in the case was registered on May 31. But the issue gained due attention of the Nitish Kumar administration around mid-June.

The full TISS report is not yet out in public. But whatever is known from the sources and media reports give chilling description of sexual abuse of girls at places where they were to feel safe and secure under government's protection.

What did TISS find out?

The TISS audit found that almost all 110-state government-funded institutions were run in violation of the mandate of the respective schemes and also the Juvenile Justice Act. It also reported abuse, varying in forms and degrees of intensity, in these institutions.

The Muzaffarpur short-stay home run by the NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti was the worst performer, according to the TISS audit, for "grave instances of violence". The audit team found several girls reporting violence and sexual abuse.

The girls staying at Muzaffarpur shelter home had no access to open space and were locked up in their wards. They were allowed to go outside their wards just to take their meals and that too up to the dining hall only. No vocational training and recreation means were provided to the inmates.

At the Patna short-stay home for girls, run by the NGO IKARD, the staffers were physically abusive. A girl had reportedly committed suicide at the Patna shelter home due to the "violent atmosphere". The TISS team was told by the girls that they were not provided clothes, medicines and even toiletries.

The TISS report also indicted the managers of Motihari short-stay home for girls and women. The audit report talks about instances of physical violence.

Short stay home for girls in Munger was officially run by Novty Welfare Society. But a part of the building had been sub-let for a monthly rent of Rs 10,000. The TISS report says that the bathrooms at shelter homes in Munger did not have latches inside leaving the girls vulnerable.

The NGO Mahila Chetna Vikaa Mandal ran a shelter home for girls in Madhepura. TISS found that one of the girls living here had been taken in forcibly from the streets and was not allowed to go back or contact her family.

A security guard had been given the management powers at the short-stay home for girls in Kaimur. It was officially run by the NGO Gram Swaraj Sewa Sansthan. The TISS report said that the girls living in Kaimur shelter home complained that the security guard was sexually abusive.

Similar damning facts emerged from the audit of boys' homes in Bihar. The boys' home in Motihari, run by NGO Nirdesh, was a place of serious physical violence and sexual abuse as reported by those living there.

Residents staying at boys' homes in Bhagalpur (run by the NGO Rupam Pragati Samaj Samiti), Munger (run by NGO Panaah), Gaya (run by the NGO DORD) and Araria also reported abuse during TISS audit.

The officials suspended by the Bihar government included seven assistant directors of district child protection units -- from Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur, Gaya and Bhojpur, district child protection officers - posted in Araria, East Champaran, Patna, Gaya, Madhepura and Sheohar, and a superintendent of a remand home, posted in Araria.

(With PTI inputs)

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