Inmates staying in the Nari Niketan would be sent back to their homes if their addresses are found. Inmates hailing from various parts of the country have been staying in State-run shelter home in Dehradun for the past many years, it is learnt.
Apart from deploying sign language experts in Nari Niketan, the social welfare department has decided to seek help from IAS/IPS officers from other States now working here to interact with the inmates. “language is proving a major bar in communicating with the inmates. We are trying all means to solve the problem,” said a State social welfare department official.
In course of interaction with the inmates, the social welfare officers observed that some of the inmates are talking in languages other than Hindi. One of the officers is learnt to have raised questions over the authority taking no initiative to send them back to their respective States earlier. He is learnt to have said that such women should not have been enrolled in the shelter home in the first place. Observers say this confirms how careless the authority running the home was regarding the inmates and their problems.
Uttarakhand additional secretary (social welfare) Manoj Chandran said that after completing necessary departmental formalities, one inmate staying in Nari Niketan was handed over to the her family members living in Ranikhet, Almora on January 7. Moreover, three more inmates which include two from Bangladesh and one from Burma will also be handed over to their respective family members after their addresses are found, he said.
He further said three more who are supposed to be from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will be similarly sent back in case their addresses are found out. “Now, the officials are working to find out their real addresses,” he added.
Critics opine that things should have started much earlier. “Now, when things have spiraled out of their control they are taking initiatives. Much of the things which have happened there would not have happened at all had the authority card a little more than what they did. They were all afflicted with malnutrition. Now, as things are reflecting the State government in poor light they seem to be in a tearing hurry to provide them with proper meal and other basic facilities in the long ill-cared shelter home. However, we welcome the new initiatives. But the spirit should continue even after the controversy dies down,” said one of the observers.