TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Directorate of Women and Child Development has issued show cause notices to 29 NGOs working for the welfare of women and children, after a survey found they are illegally operating in the State. Interestingly, majority of the unregistered NGOs are run by foreigners.
Director Deepali Naik confirmed the development and said the attempt is to discourage trafficking and abuse of gullible sections of the society.
“As per the Juvenile Justice Act, such institutions have to be registered with the department for carrying out the welfare activities they intend. However, we found that only 51 are registered. Those that have failed to get themselves registered have been asked why action should not be taken against them,” she said speaking to Herald.
The department had in August 2014 asked all the anganwadi sector supervisors to report about the number of children’s homes/shelter, homes/NGOs in their respective jurisdictions. The supervisors were also entrusted with the responsibility to check whether these homes were registered.
The WCD’s step taken against the illegal institutions holds relevance in the wake of a recent incident when six underprivileged boys were illegally trafficked from Kolhapur to Goa and kept in a villa at Santa Cruz. NGO My Father’s House in Kolhapur had come under the scanner after four boys were rescued from Panjim and Santa Cruz in March this year. The British national Timothy Geddes, who was found loitering with the children and detained by the police, only to be released a few hours later, is still untraceable.
The St Cruz Villa, which had the Kolhapur NGO’s nameplate, is registered neither in Goa nor Maharashtra.
