Inmates of Mohkampura orphan centre shifted to childcare home

Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, June 18

A day after the arrest of a man for molesting minor girls at an orphanage in Mohkampura, members of the Child Welfare Committee shifted the inmates to other care homes here on Tuesday.

A team, led by Child Welfare Committee member Gurmohinder Singh, along with a police team, visited the orphanage and destitute centre and asked office-bearers to show the licence of Child Care Institutions (CCI) issued by the Department of Child Welfare Woman and Child Development.

Trustees were not present at the spot and a woman employee, Rajbeer Kaur, failed to produce any document. Rajbeer said, “The orphanage home has been running for the last 30 years. Inmates are getting all the facilities. The accused has been arrested. The administration should not shift the children. They will not get proper care at any other home.”

Gurmohinder Singh said, “We found that the orphanage is not registered with the CCI of the Social Welfare Department. Unregistered institutes are not allowed to keep children. They have been running the Trust since 1986. The government had amended the related Act in 2015 and made registration compulsory. There is a provision of one-year imprisoned and Rs 1-lakh fine for violating the rules. We have asked the Trustees to produce the documents of registration. Otherwise, we will not allow them to keep the child inmates.”

Members of the Child Welfare Committee gave them 15 days to procure necessary documents. “We will restore the children to their parents.

Those who are orphan will be transferred to other childcare homes,” Singh added.

On Monday, the police had arrested a person, Narinder Singh, for reportedly molesting two minor orphaned girls, living in the Mohkampura orphanage. The accused is husband of a woman sewadar of the orphanage. He was arrested by the police following a complaint lodged by a social worker who came to know about the incident when she, along with her team, visited the centre.