Sorry state of affairs at women rescue homes
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The state of women rescue homes in the city, under the ministry of women’s development and child welfare, are reported to be hellish, revealing how unimportant the state government regards women issues to be.
Most of the inappropriately named ‘homes’ do not have adequate facilities and funds. Some like the Swa-dar rescue home run by the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust at Hyders-hakote are overcrowded, housing 116 women when it can deal with only 50.
Sources from six women’s rescue homes, including Ujjwala and Swadarsha in Ranga Reddy and Hydera-bad, stated that women don’t get enough food to eat or proper clothing to wear. Security is lax as in the ca-se of the Ujjwala rescue ho-me from where four women were abducted on Saturday.
The managements of the rescue homes claim that the funding that comes from the state and Central ministries are not enough to run the homes. “We get `6,000 per head annually for 50 inmates. It’s not eno-ugh,” said P. Padmavathi, manager of the Swadar rescue home at Hydershakote.
Satyanarayana Reddy, manager of the Ujjwala rescue home, said they haven’t received funds for the last two years and the home would soon be closed down.
In addition, so cumbers-ome is the process to relea-se them from these homes that they get stuck there for ages. “I too have a family and want to go back to them, but I haven’t been released from here even after one-and-a-half years,” said a former sex worker at the Ujj-wala rescue home. Even if their families approach the officials, they are not rele-ased, the women complain.
Such inhuman treatment seems to defeat the very pu-rpose for which the homes were built and that it comes under a ministry that purports to look after the welfare of women is shocking.
The women’s development and child welfare department insists the inmates can only be released thro-ugh legal procedures and this causes delay.
“The family has to approach the concerned court with proper documents to prove the inmate belongs to them, and to get an order for release. In many cases, brokers, pretending to be the brother or father of the women, try to take them away. Hence, it takes a lot of time for a background check,” said E.V. Swarnalatha, joint commissioner of the department.
Moreover, several women, many of them ex-sex workers, suffer from various diseases including HIV and mental illnesses.
When confronted with these shocking facts, state commissioner for women’s development and child welfare Chiranjeevi Chowdhari said, “We have looked into the problems. We will form instructions for the bureaucrats and the concerned management and will conduct frequent monitoring of these
homes. We will resolve this issue.”
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