Chandigarh, June 19
More than 250 destitute children housed in children homes of the Punjab government are being taken care of by peons, gardeners and sweepers!

These ‘children homes’ run by the department of women and child welfare are shelter to orphans and poor kids living away from their parents, but offer less than even basic care at the hands of inadequate and untrained staff “gathered” from the unwanted staff with other departments.

Five out of the seven children homes are headless with the post of superintendent lying vacant for years. As a result there is no one at the top responsible for these homes and the staff dealing directly with the children, their living, education, food, hygiene are either sweepers, gardeners, peons or watchmen.

At one home that houses eight children, the sole caretaker who was asked to be on duty non-stop for three days and nights was found to be drinking when The Tribune team visited in the evening. At other homes children have been complaining about caretakers abusing and even beating them up. In Jalandhar, which has 132 girls in the children home, male caretakers are deployed to take care of the girls.

While none of the children’s homes are following the norms laid down by the Juvenile Justice Act in terms of staff or infrastructure, certain basic amenities are missing in all the homes.

At most places these homes are being run from rented accommodation and no one seems to be bothered about the state of the building. The home at Ropar houses 14 inmates. It is dark and dingy with damp walls, broken doors, shattered windows and needs urgent repairs. According to superintendent Satwinder Kaur the repair proposal was sanctioned two days ago.

At Patiala, Bathinda and Gurdaspur these homes are cloistered in crowded streets where there are no open spaces for the children though the staff claimed that they were taken out to nearby parks in the evenings.

The bright spot, however, is Hoshiarpur where the children home for boys is located in several acres of land and has 68 inmates. The home has its own basketball team which according to assistant superintendent Balwinder Singh has been winning matches at the state level.

In most places the children did not have good clothes and the bedding was in tatters. Broken boxes are used by the children to store their clothes and books. Though all the children in the homes attend school regularly, there is no library in these homes. There are televisions sets but no cable connections. Most homes do not have water coolers or desert coolers.

The grants for the children homes reach late and most of these homes are running on credit worth lakhs.

“Because of lack of facilities and pathetic living conditions the number of children in these homes is declining. Other than Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur all other homes have eight to 20 children only,” said an employee of a children home.

While acute staff shortage in the department has led to a state where most of these homes are on the brink of closure, the intentions of the state government to improve the situation is also questionable.

The superintendents are posted at the whims and fancies of the senior officers. The superintendent posted at Ropar is drawing her salary from Jalandhar. The one at Jalandhar is in charge of five other centres also. The employee drawing salary of the superintendent is posted at the vocational rehabilitation centre and the superintendent’s charge has been given to another person. Wherever there is subordinate staff, it is a bitter lot awaiting promotions since 2000. Proposals for repairs or construction and change of premises remain pending at the directorate for years.