Religious Conversion Found In Some Shelter Homes In Odisha: NCPCR

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Some shelter homes in the state are indulging in religious conversion activities. This was revealed in a report by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The report was submitted to the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry and Odisha government on Tuesday.

Briefing mediapersons in New Delhi in the afternoon, chairperson of the Commission, Priyank Kanoongo said that following reports on sexual abuse of minor girls in a shelter home in Dhenkanal district, the Union WCD Minister, Maneka Gandhi had asked the Commission to probe into the incident and submit a report.

“Acting on the directive of the ministry, a nine-member team of the Commission had visited Odisha on December 12 last year and inspected 50 shelter homes in 19 districts. The team said that some religious books have been found in these shelter homes,” Kanoongo said.

Apart from this, out of 50, there is no minimum infrastructure in 28 shelter homes. “There are no CCTV cameras in 21 shelter homes. Besides, 14 shelter homes are running illegally without police verification. An FIR has been registered against 13 shelter homes. The children of two shelter homes have been shifted to other institutions as they have no minimum requirements as per NCPCR guidelines,” the report pointed out.

Summing up its report, the Commission has criticized the state government for its poor monitoring system to oversee the working of the shelter homes.