Boy detained for taking shelter in girls' orphanage

Mistaken identity

Mum Shah from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was rescued by the police from the local railway station on July 29 while he was loitering on the platform. When Shah told the police he was a “homeless girl” without a family, they sent him to Swadhara, an orphanage and a short-stay home for girls and women in distress.

At that time, the police had no idea he was a boy, as he was dressed in girl’s attire and even wore bangles a lady’s wrist watch. He had also put on a pair of lady’s shoes.

However, a few days later, the inmates of the orphanage became suspicious of his movements and informed the authorities about the matter. The Bolangir district officials decided to conduct a gender test on the boy after the orphanage authorities brought the matter to their notice.

The test confirmed Shah was a boy and not a girl. When confronted with the test report, Shah admitted he was a boy. He told the police that he had been wearing girl’s clothes since childhood. “I hate boy’s dresses,” he told the police.

Shah had fled Bhopal along with a boy from Rourkela, the steel township in western Orissa Sundergarh district. In fact, Shah’s friend had fallen in love with him mistaking him to be a girl. Shah had escaped from Rourkela, fearing he would be caught by his “boy friend” who wanted to marry him. The Bolangir police have kept Shah under the observation of a psychiatrist for seven days.