A case out of Sirohi district in Rajasthan has exposed a shocking double failure of the system meant to protect children. An illegal hostel running without any government permission was found to be the site of sexual abuse of children aged between 5 and 11 years. What made things worse was that when these traumatised children were taken to a government hospital for a mandatory medical examination, a doctor on duty allegedly asked police personnel for beer instead of attending to them.
Anonymous email uncovers horror inside the illegal hostel
The case came to light three days ago when the District Legal Services Authority, or DLSA, received an anonymous email. The email detailed ongoing sexual abuse of children inside the hostel. Taking the complaint seriously, DLSA secretary Savitri Anand quickly formed a joint team with the Child Welfare Committee, or CWC, and local police. This team raided the hostel without delay, before any evidence could be destroyed. The raid revealed that the hostel had no valid registration at all, meaning it was operating entirely illegally, yet it was housing 30 children. Of these, 6 young children broke down while narrating to officials the horrific abuse they had suffered, an account that left every official present visibly shaken.
A second humiliation awaited the children at the hospital, at night
After the abuse inside the hostel came to light, the victims were taken to a government hospital the same night for a medical examination, a legal requirement that has to be carried out without delay in such cases. But another painful experience was waiting for them there. It is alleged that the doctor on emergency duty at the time was completely drunk. Instead of examining and treating these already terrified children, the doctor openly began asking the police personnel present to bring him bottles of beer. Members of the Child Welfare Committee and senior DLSA officials witnessed this shameful conduct firsthand and were left stunned by the doctor's insensitivity and inhuman behaviour. At a moment when the children needed care and reassurance, the very person they had turned to for help behaved with complete disregard for his duty.
Warden booked under POCSO, computers and CCTV footage seized
CWC member Pratap Singh and the DLSA secretary have described the hospital incident as gross negligence and a criminal act on the part of the medical department. Senior medical officials have been summoned over the matter, and strict punitive action is being prepared against the accused doctor. Separately, police have registered a case against the illegal hostel's operator and main accused, the warden, under the POCSO Act along with other serious sections, and have arrested him. To get to the bottom of the entire network and identify anyone else who may have been involved in running the illegal hostel, a special team has been formed under the leadership of an Additional SP and is now investigating the case. To gather solid evidence, police have seized 2 computers from the hostel premises and taken into custody and sealed CCTV footage from the past one week, so that it cannot be tampered with during the investigation.
Serious questions over child safety and hospital accountability
The case has raised a major question mark over both child safety and the functioning of government hospitals in Rajasthan. On one hand, an illegal hostel operating without any government approval crushed the childhood of innocent children for a long time, right under the nose of the local administration, without anyone noticing. On the other hand, when these very victims turned to the government system hoping for justice, they were made to go through yet another humiliating and shameful ordeal. The episode shows that keeping a check on illegal institutions is not enough on its own, accountability of staff on duty inside government hospitals matters just as much. Police believe that further interrogation and investigation could reveal even more victims connected to this hostel case.
