‘The reform that’s supposed to happen in these homes isn’t taking place’
CHENNAI: In July of 2016, 33 boys ran away from the Government Observation Home for Boys and Girls in Kilpauk here.
While in the early investigation stages some sort of trafficking racket was assumed, it simply turned out that the boys tried to escape because of the poor conditions in the home.
More recently, despite a call by the Department of Social Defence, no NGOs volunteered to help rehabilitate children in conflict with the law in the city.
The reasons for both these incidents are more or less the same. “We have a strong law, but we never cared to train our staff on how to implement it,” says child rights activist Andrew Sesuraj.