On a hilltop in a place called Mudavanmugal in Thiruvananthapuram lies the Divine Children’s Home. Functioning since 2002, the institute has been embroiled in a controversy in the last few years over allegations of children being tortured and made to work. In June 2018, it was officially closed, the children were shifted to other homes or else sent off with their guardians. A few weeks later, however, it started functioning again, and according to the director, as a hostel.
Those who had flagged the alleged abuse at the institute believe that running an institution as a hostel was only to ensure that it will not come under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and that the Child Welfare Commission (CWC) or the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) cannot interfere in its working.
There are at present 35 children at the institution. “Yes, it is running as a hostel now,” Alice Thomas, director of the institute, told TNM.
However, TNM has found that though Alice Thomas states that the institute is only functioning as a hostel, it is still registered as an orphanage under the Orphanage Control Board. A source at the board told TNM that this means Divine Children’s Home can continue to take donations like any other orphanage.
Alice’s claims of turning the home into a hostel has also been questioned by the DCPU. “If that is the case, why wouldn’t Alice Thomas show us the license (of it being a hostel) when a member visited for inspection? Why is the name still carrying the words ‘children’s home’ and not ‘hostel’?” asks a member from the DCPU, Thiruvananthapuram.
The case
In early 2018, the children’s home had received a notice from the CWC to close down after reports of children being tortured had emerged. “Children had given statements of being physically abused – beaten till the stick broke or hair being pulled or made to clean the chicken nest,” says a panel of the Child Welfare Commission headed by Chairperson and advocate N Sunanda.
The children were hit on their faces and other parts of the body and such physical punishment was meted out even for trivial things.
According to CWC, despite the complaints, the government had permitted the children’s home to continue functioning.
Biju Prabhakar, Special Secretary in charge of the Department of Social Justice and Women & Child Development of Government of Kerala, had stayed the closure notice. He says that he went by Alice Thomas’s version that some individuals wanted to install a mobile tower near the institution. “Alice told me that she objected to it and thereafter a group of people started sending complaints against her to CWC,” says Biju.
“I understood from her that she brought some tribal children from Kuttichal (Thiruvananthapuram) and was educating them here,” he adds.
Alice also reportedly brought some parents along for the meeting. “They said that it is only because Alice was running the institution that their kids are studying. On that basis, I stayed the closure notice,” says Biju.
He, however had nothing to say about statements by children about the abuse they faced.
However, in a surprising move, on June 7, 2018, Alice informed the CWC that she is closing the Divine Children’s Home, and sending the children away with their parents or guardians. “The kids admitted by the CWC were rehabilitated in other children’s homes and others were allowed to go home to their parents or kin,” says the CWC.
However, the Thiruvananthapuram District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) was informed that children were still seen at the home, much after the home was supposed to have closed.
A team from the DCPU went for inspection on August 9, 2018.
“They claimed they are running it as a hostel now, which meant it didn’t come under the Juvenile Justice Act, and so it was not up to us to check on them or send them notice. However, when we asked them to show us the proof that it is running as a hostel, they refused to do so. They said that the license was obtained from the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and since the institution is being run by a trust, the latter’s permission would be needed before sharing any documents,” says a DCPU member.
The DCPU informed the CWC about the visit. And the CWC panel called the authorities of the children’s home for a hearing, thrice.
“Before the first hearing – scheduled on August 20, 2018 – they informed us that they were busy with flood relief work and asked for another date. In the second notice, they were asked to appear for a hearing on September 9 at 3 pm. The administrator then sent a letter requesting to move the hearing to another date. A third notice was sent, for a hearing on October 9, 2018. To that, we received a long letter from the administrator, Deepu Muraleedharan, telling us that neither the CWC nor the DCPU had any power to send them a notice, only the government did.
“They wrote that we cannot question them, cannot give or take away their recognition under the JJ Act, because the powers are vested with the government. And to their knowledge, the government had not sub-delegated it to anyone. The CWC had informed the Child Rights Commission and the Police Assistant Commissioner about the letter,” says the panel.
According to Biju, Alice had approached him in March 2019, stating that she is running the institution as a hostel.
‘CWC had good opinion about DCH before these issues’
Alice Thomas, director of DCH, tells TNM the same reasons she conveyed to Biju Prabhakar. “Some people wanted to install a mobile tower near the institution. The residents were opposed to this, and they cited the institution and the children staying there as a reason. During a roadside meeting regarding this, I too spoke against the installation of the tower, worried over the security of my children. Two people in charge of the mobile tower saw me speak and later began telling people that they'd have my institution closed. That is when I started getting notices from the Child Welfare Commission,” she says.
The director says that before all these issues’ cropped up, even the CWC had a very good opinion about the children’s home. “They would send me children turned away by other institutions. I look after them well.”
She however, repeated that the institution was now a hostel, which is incorrect. “I wanted the institution to be registered under the JJ Act. Now it is running as a hostel and we have 35 children here, from the age of six to 17, studying up to class 12.”
Sources say that by claiming she was running a hostel and not a children’s home, Alice was ensuring that the regular checks she was subjected to would no longer persist. What remains crucial is the safety of children and what measures the government will take to ensure that the institution does not harass the kids again.