Seventy-six boys from north eastern states of Assam and Manipur, who were lodged in an unregistered children's home in Kanyakumari district in the southern tip of peninsular India, have been rescued.
Child Welfare Committee members raided the Bedesta Blessing Home, 60 kilometres from here, which did not have adequate infrastructure or enough food to feed the children,officials said.
Shakila Banu, Palayamkottai Juvenile home officer and Probationary officer, Kanyakumari, K Thirumavalavan told reporters last night that the children were staying in the three-year-old home since July 2009.
The rescued children were from below poverty line families and brought to Saranayalayam, a home for orphans and destitutes being run by the Roman Catholic missionaries here,they said.
"We want to join our parents in Assam and Manipur,"the children told the officials.
Thirumavalavan said they had approached the Red Cross and other government agencies to identify the children's parents so that they could be handed over.
Officials said three more organisations at
Ambasamuthiram and Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district did not have adequate infrastructure.The Government should either provide adequate facilities or handover the children to some
other homes where infrastructure was good, they said.
The 76 boys were part of a group of 150 children brought to Chennai by a missionary a few years ago. He did not have adequate funds to maintain them and handed over 74 girls to a home at Bangalore and the boys to the Kanyakumari home,
officials said.
Johnson, member, Child Welfare Committee (CWC), said unregistered homes should be monitored more closely.
Social welfare department officials said 1700
applications had been received last year and this year seeking approval for children's home.
The state government had laid down stringent
inspection norms after it was found that some homes in Tirunelveli district were giving children in adoption forhefty sums.
The present raid was conducted following an enquiry by Kanyakumari Police who informed the Juvenile Home officer and CWC.