SC questions Centre over child sexual abuse

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government as to what action it took about sexual exploitation of 1575 children in shelter homes across the country. It asked the Centre to prepare a child protection policy.

"1,575 boys and girls are victims of sexual and physical abuse. What have you done about it? Which are the shelter homes where they are kept? What action the states have taken on this," a three-judge bench presided over by Justice Madan B Lokur asked Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand.

The court posed its query after it was informed by the Centre about the reports received from the states last year on physical abuse of children in the shelter homes in different parts of the country.

"If the report was already there with you, it compounds the problem," the bench said.

Anand, appearing for the Centre, sought time to inform about the specific steps taken in this regard.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Bihar government, submitted they have no objection if the social audit report of shelter homes in the state prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was made public.

The bench directed the Bihar government to make the report public.

The Bihar government also told the court that three organisations, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, were already looking into the psycho-social aspect of the girls who were allegedly raped and sexually abused at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

The court had earlier on August 2 asked the investigation in the Muzaffarpur case be conducted with the assistance of professional counsellors or qualified child psychologists appointed in consultation with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bengaluru, TISS, Mumbai and AIIMS, Delhi.