Video captures thrashing of protection home inmates

Hours after the Samwasani Griha, a Varanasi-based women protection home, got a “all is well” status report from the visiting delegation of the state legislative council, a local youth exposed the shocking state of affairs at the shelter home.

Hours after the Samwasani Griha, a Varanasi-based women protection home, got a “all is well” status report from the visiting delegation of the state legislative council, a local youth exposed the shocking state of affairs at the shelter home.

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The video, a copy of which is with HT, showed how brutally the caretaker beats the inmates.

According to locals, such thrashing of inmates was a regular feature here. “Screams of girls being tortured can be overheard almost daily,” said a witness.

The shelter home houses over 100 girls out of which 16 are mentally retarded. Orphan and runaway girls of 18 years and above are kept here.

However, the state legislative committee led by Shahdab Fatima, which inspected the Samwasani Griha on Saturday, had expressed its satisfaction over the working of the shelter home.

District magistrate Saurabh Babu is out of station and could not be contacted.
During the inspection, a Bangladeshi woman pleaded before Shahdab Fatima to reunite her with her family members in Bangladesh.

The woman requested the members to contact her family members in Bangladesh. Fatima assured the woman to take up the issue with officials at the Bangladesh Embassy in New Delhi.

According to the delegation, most of the inmates want to go home but due to technical reasons and pending cases in courts, the inmates could not be sent home.

Some of the inmates, staying along with their children at the protection house, requested the delegation to arrange for proper schooling of their children.