SHILLONG, Aug 8: The Assembly’s Committee on Women Empowerment on Monday recommended the need to put all hostels for children across the state under strict surveillance.
This came following the rescuing of six minor children from Rimpu Bagan, where an alleged sex racket was busted by West Garo Hills police last month and that subsequently led to the arrest of BJP MDC from Tura Bernard N Marak and 73 others.
After chairing a meeting with the officials of the social welfare department, Chairperson of the Committee Ampareen Lyngdoh told reporters that all hostel facilities for minor children should get some sort of a government approval and there should be constant monitoring to ensure children do not find themselves in conflicting situations like what has happened in West Garo Hills.
“All hostels which are housing children under the age of 18 should be strictly put under surveillance. There should be facility for spot inspection, facility for registration, facility for polling stations around them to be also roped in so that we do not wait for this kind of a big occurrence of a violation of rights,” Lyngdoh, who is also East Shillong MLA, said.
“I think government of Meghalaya now has to come up with a norm and has to start being vigilant on this kind of a facility as we have seen everything went wrong and this should not have been the case,” she said while asserting “We will learn from our experiences and we should ensure we provide safe havens for young children who go and stay in these hostels and facilities with the hope of being protected and not with a hope of being violated.”
On the status of the six rescued children, the chairperson said the department will now take over and ensure these children are given opportunities to live in children homes. She said one of the children is also now a child in conflict with law.
“We have to ensure that these children are given wherewithal to ensure that they are able to fight these situations that they find themselves in. I have also been assured that all the six victims…will also continue to live life to the maximum despite the fact that the situations (which) have been harrowing experiences for all of them,” she said.
Refusing to divulge further information on the case, Lyngdoh said the committee wants to ensure that the rights of these children are protected and that they are given adequate opportunity to go back to their normal life and go back to school.
Mother of 10 killed in Jaintia Hills
The committee also sought a report on the status of children of women who were killed recently.
The chairperson referred to the case of (L) Siangshai, a mother of 10 children who was killed in Jaintia Hills and informed that the department had assured the panel that children aged from 2 to 14 will be put into institutional homes in East Jaintia Hills District.
“We wanted to ensure these children also continued to receive assistance from the government of Meghalaya throughout these young people’s lives till they attain the age of 18. There is one boy aged 18 and he will be given a vocational training on hair cutting,” she said.
Further, Lyngdoh informed that the two children of (L) G Bareh, aged 8 and 12, will be taken care of by their 62-year-old grandmother Meera Bareh.
“We have asked the social welfare department to ensure that M Bareh is given ample opportunity to ensure that these two children do not miss out on life following the death of their mother,” he said.
