Boys Home has no occupants

The district Balakara Balamandira (Boys Home) has had no occupants for over a year now. A dispute between tenant of the building who demanded an increase in the rent, coupled with water problems had forced the district administration to vacate the children to Boys Homes in other districts.

As the number of students started to increase in the rented facility, conditions started becoming deplorable. The conditions at the rented facility and the “annoying tenant” forced the Department of Women and Child Development to have its own building after housing the Boys Home at a rented facility for over a decade.

As a result, the occupants were shifted to various Boys Home in the State. Soon, the Boys Home in the district will finally be shifted to its own building.

The new building built at Vijayanagar, will be inaugurated by the end of June and will ensure that the Boys Home has a permanent structure in the district, according to officials.

Earlier, the rented building in J P Nagar had housed 43 occupants.

Of the 43 occupants, 23 children were returned to their parents on June 2012. Nine children were transferred to Boys Home, Chikmagalur and four to Boys Home, Mandya. Six of them were shifted to Bapuji Children’s Home in the city and one boy was released from the Home after reaching 18 years of age.

All the occupants of the house were between the age of six and 18. Children who were in conflict with the law, children with single parents, orphans, child labourers and children who had faced harassment were housed in the Boys Home. Food, clothes and education is provided for free at the Boys Home.

New building

The new building built at an estimated cost of Rs 70.1 lakh is a 4,000 square feet facility.
Deputy Director of the Department of Women and Child Welfare, N R Vijay said that the facility will have a dormitory, kitchen, office, room for indoor games, counselling room, dining hall, kitchen, writing room etc. The facility can house 100 boys.

Children of the Boys Home will be sent to the Government School in Hinkal, as occupants of the Boys Home are sent to the nearest government school, he said.

“The children we had sent to Boys Homes in Chikmagalur and Mandya will not be recalled to the new centre. Seven children who are currently in different facilities in the city will be shifted to the new building. Children from other districts will also be housed here,” she said.

Land has also been earmarked to build staff quarters near the facility, Vinay said.