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Circle of Abuse
Young girls, sexually exploited and sometimes married off when being a minor, finally end up at shelter homes. But these homes lack the wherewithal to ensure their safety and development
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
It seems like a circle of abuse for impoverished girls forced to live on the pavements in the city. Even as their social security is at stake, they largely fall prey to child marriage and even undergo abortion and miscarriage at the young age of 14. Due to the lack of sex education, the girls are clueless about good and bad touch. Even after being taken into shelter homes, they tend to misbehave with other young girls. At a bus stop on Gandhi-Irwin Road, Sridevi (19), is calming down a crying baby.
“This is my sister’s child. I would have had my own baby by now, but I had a miscarriage,” says the lean and dusky teen. She has lived all her life on the platform. Even her parents did odd jobs and lived here. Having lost her mother at a very young age, Sridevi fell in love at the age of 12, with another platform-dwelling youngster. When she was 14, she had a miscarriage. “I used to run and play on this road and I lost the child”. But the same year she was forced to marry to Amulraj (23).
‘Even my cousin married at the age of 14. It is normal here. There are 47 families living on this platform. In case a man misbehaves with a woman here, the rest of them make sure they are married. “Otherwise, we beat and chase him away,” she says.
Such girls face all odds to get through life, from bathing in the wee hours of the day to changing clothes at the dead of night on a street, to sleeping light to remain alert. A social mobiliser with a government- aided shelter home for girls says that in Semmencherry, Parry’s, Vyasarpadi and Kannagi Nagar, teenaged girls are very unsafe and face threats of sexual abuse and early marriage. “It takes two weeks to convince a child and the parents to put them in a safe environment like a shelter home.
In Kannagi Nagar, many houses are unoccupied and are used as traps for girls who are either raped or abused there. If parents are unable to protect or afford to spend on them, they come and leave their wards with us,” she says.
“Once they are admitted, we make them undergo a series of tests including for TB, HIV. A visit to the gynaecologist is also included,” she says. Vanajaa Augustine who runs Rainbow Homes in Purasaiwalkam, which has more than 120 girls, says the girls who come to them are mostly exploited. “Their parents are migrant labourers, alms-seekers, convicts or those into the illicit liquor trade, and those who peddle in ganja or engage in the flesh trade. Even if we let the girls go with the parents or guardians for a few days, they return to us abused. We have a 16-yearold daughter of a sex worker from Vyasarpadi. The last time the mother visited her child was in 2014, after which a man came twice claiming to be the father.
We did not send the girl with him as the girl hesitated to go saying the man was her mother’s live-in partner. Such homes across the city lack the wherewithal to provide proper counselling to the girls. Unfortunately, some girls do not know what was being done to them. “When such girls reach the homes, we begin getting complaints from younger girls that they are being molested,” the NGO worker says.
PLAN OF ACTION
- A top official with the Health Department of Chennai Corporation said that there are 37 shelters being run under different categories such as for families, children, elderly and mentally challenged persons
- The Corporation has tied up with NGOs for this purpose. While the Corporation takes care of the administrative duties, members of NGOs carry out night round to rescue people who live on platforms
- The Corporation says that there are incidents where the teenage girls reach their homes after being sexually exploited. For this, they had recently written to the Commissioner of Police to ensure that policemen coordinate with the shelter homes
- Corporation recomments that each jurisdictional police official can be in contact with the homes or visit them, on complaints such as sexual harassment, one has to file a police complaint first to initiate action. For this, coordination with the police is required
SCHEMES FOR PAVEMENT DWELLERS
For homeless children who are either orphans or without adult protection:
- Residential schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
- Social welfare observation homes for children who are in conflict with law
- Corporation-run homes for children and teens who are rescued after contacting Child-Helpline numbers
- Corporation-run homes for children and teens who are rescued after contacting Child-Helpline numbers
- Integrated Child Protected Scheme (ICPS) – A Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Government – Civil Society Partnership – Ministry of Women and Child Development
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