CWE recommends all hostels for children be put under strict surveillance

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 9, 2022

The Committee on Women Empowerment of the state Assembly said that all the hostels for children in the state should get the approval of the state government.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the officials of the social welfare department, Chairperson of the CWE Ampareen Lyngdoh said there should also be constant monitoring to ensure children do not find themselves in conflicting situations like what has happened in West Garo Hills.

West Garo Hills police had recently rescued six minor children from Rimpu Bagan, where a sex racket was busted by West Garo Hills police last month and that subsequently led to the arrest of a BJP MDC from Tura Bernard N Marak and 73 others.

“All hostels which are housing children under the age of 18 should be strictly put under surveillance. There should be a 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 said.

“I think the 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.

She also said, “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.”

The chairperson also informed that 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 there 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.

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.

On the status of children of women who were killed recently, the chairperson said the department had assured that children aged from 2 to 14 of (L) Siangshai, a mother of 10 children who was killed, will be put into institutional homes in East Jaintia Hills District.

She further said the two children of (L) G Bareh aged 8 and 12 will be taken care by their 62-year-old grandmother Meera Bareh.