Harvesting Misfortunes For Profit

Qurat shares an open "dirty secret" in the valley

Valley Orphanages are Money Minting Machines: Masoodi

Tawseef Ahmad (Rising Kashmir)

Srinagar: Qurat Masoodi, a social activist Wednesday alleged that orphanages in Valley have become an industry for some people to make money.

Referring about the resumption of Shah-e-Jeelan orphanage, Masoodi said: “Orphanages in Kashmir are exploiting children in the name of taking care of the orphans.”

Masoodi expressed concern over the work carried over by the trust and said that these people are exploiting the orphans only for their personal benefits.

“I fail to understand how an orphanage can resume its work when State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked for its closure. I do not know if the government wants our children to get proper treatment,” she said amid slogans raised by her supporters who advocated for the closure of the orphanage.

Criticizing the government for its failure to check the mushroom growth of unregistered orphanages in the valley, Massodi also criticized the parents “for are selling their children” to these orphanages.

It is pertinent to mention that Shah-e-Jeelan orphanage was closed down in June, 2012 on the orders of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) after its investigation revealed that the orphanage lacks basic facilities. The investigation had further revealed that the orphanage was not even registered, as claimed by the owner.

According to the SHRC order dated 25.06.2012, a copy of which is with Rising Kashmir the Shah-e-Jeelan orphanage at Dalgate was found lacking basic facilities and was not found to be catering to the segregation of the children on gender basis.

“The first floor of the orphanage was used by the house owner himself while the one room on the floor was occupied by three tenants, working with some private establishments. The second floor houses male orphanage in two rooms. One room is used as office and one room is under house owner,” the report reads.

“Third floor of the orphanage is used to accommodate four female orphans including female cook (mother of three female orphans). One room is occupied by three male tenants from Lolab in the same floor", report says.

It was also revealed that two children were put to some sort of physical torture.

The female cook who has now left the orphanage also leveled charges against the owner of the orphanage and said that he was misbehaving with the children and was bungling money meant for the orphans.
Coming down heavily on the owner of the Shah-e-Jeelan orphanage Masoodi said : “How can a person take care of 20 0r 30 children, when he himself is a drunkard.”.

She claimed that she knows some children whose parents are alive but they have sent their children to orphanages. “It is very unfortunate that some children are taking shelter in orphanages despite having their parents alive. This means that they are selling their children to these unregistered orphanages,” she said.

She also expressed dismay over the mushroom growth of unregistered orphanages.

“There are so many unregistered orphanages in here and nobody is having a check on them. I urge the concerned authorities to find the total number of registered orphanages operating in the valley,” said the social activist adding that the government should launch a manhunt for the closure of the unregistered orphanages.