‘Good News India’ shelter homes raided across state

BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: The district collectors on Monday raided childcare institutes run by ‘

Good News India

’ across the state following allegations of sexual harassment by inmates of a centre run by the organisation in

Dhenkanal district

. The collectors are verifying documents to find out unregistered institutions to shift the inmates elsewhere, said an official source.


“The district collectors have been asked to inspect the childcare institutes run by Good News India. We are also looking into other aspects like the registration of the institutes, kinds of funding they are receiving, activities going on in the centres and living condition of inmates. Some of the institutes were found to be running without registration,” said director, social welfare, Reghu G. There are 22 childcare centres run by the organisation in the state, he said.

District administration officials along with members of district

child welfare committees

(CWCs) visited different institutions in Bhadrak, Balasore, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Bargarh, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada and Ganjam districts .

“Inmates from some centres have been shifted to authorised childcare institutes,” he added.

Kandhamal district administration has sealed a shelter home for children, run by the Good News India, at G Udayagiri for allegedly functioning without registration under Juvenile Justice Act. All 142 inmates of the home, including 113 girls and 23 boys between the age of five and 18 years, have been shifted to the childcare institutions, running with the support of the government at G Udayagiri and Kalinga in the district.

“During our verification of the documents of the home we came to know that it had lost its validation on October 10, 2018. We had issued show-cause notice to the home on October 30. The authorities, however, did not respond to the show-cause notice, which expired on November 30,” said District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Rashmita Karana.

Similar raids were also conducted on the homes run by the organisation at Saheba Jenapalli in Ganjam district’s Chhatrapur block and B Sitapur in Gajapati district’s Goshani block on Sunday.

“There are 134 inmates, including 80 girls and 54 boys, in the shelter home at Saheba Jenapalli. The home was not registered,” DCPO, Ganjam, Subodh Sarangi said. “There are 159 inmates, including 90 girls and 69 boys, in the home at B Sitapur,” said DCPO, Gajapati, Pritikant Panda.

The allegations of sexual harassment in the childcare institute in Dhenkanal raised questions over their running in the state. “There are so many lose ends like how these institutes are running without getting registered under the Juvenile Justice Act. Besides, there are penal provisions for the owners, who have not registered their units,” said director of Childline and member of Khurda Child Welfare Committee, Benudhar Senapati. He said, several childcare institutes were closed due to lack of prescribed facilities and infrastructure.

There are a total 324 childcare institutes in Odisha of which six are government run and rest are privately managed.

There are three types of childcare institutes in Odisha — Open Shelter where a child is kept for a temporary period, Children’s Home where a child stays till 18 years and Special Adoption Agency where a child stays till six years and is open for adoption.