In a shocking revelation of sexual assault, the staffers of a residential therapy centre run by an NGO here have been allegedly raping and thrashing deaf-and-mute orphan girls for the past one year during their visits for speech therapy sessions. The girls, aged between 12 and 17 years, reside at the Government Girls’ Home in Gandhi Nagar here. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/deafmute-girls-allegedly-raped-in-jaipur/article4728968.ece Five girls had recently complained to the Child Welfare Committee through sign language during counselling sessions that they had been sexually exploited and beaten by the staff members of Awaz Foundation at Kanota near here, where they were regularly sent to stay for education and speech therapy sessions.
Acting on a complaint by CWC chairman Ram Prakash Bairwa, the police on Friday night arrested five persons, including the administrator of the residential school, and found in their preliminary investigation that two of the girls had been raped and others were thrashed and mistreated. The shelter home, where the girls are staying, had registered the complaint on April 30 and reported the matter to CWC. Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said the accused arrested from various locations included school administrator Alpana Daswani, assistant Geeta Vaibhav, warden Ashok Prajapat, clerk Suresh Bairwa and security guard Mahesh Mali. Among them, Ashok and Suresh have been booked on charges of rape and others for conspiring with the main accused and beating the girls. The Awaz Foundation is run with the support of the State Government’s Social Justice Department. The victims had earlier tried to bring the matter to the notice of the Foundation’s authorities to no avail. After their latest visit to the therapy centre, the shelter home’s warden reportedly noticed injury marks on their bodies and informed the CWC with the complaint of physical abuse. According to the police sources, preliminary investigation has pointed to the possibility of one of the girls being pregnant. The medical report of the victim was awaited for a final conclusion. The incident sent shock waves in the State capital and activists representing women’s groups and People’s Union for Civil Liberties staged a massive demonstration outside the Girls’ Home on Saturday demanding justice for the deaf-mute girls and foolproof security measures for all inmates. -- Avinash Shahi MPhil Research Scholar Centre for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
