After Delhi police released an advertisement today on Times of India searching for ten ‘kidnapped girls’ from a Children Home of DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) run by Salaam Baalak Trust in Delhi’s Tis Hazari area, the corporation has denied the incident. DMRC said that there no girls in the children home, therefore the question of girls going missing from there does not arise.
Earlier it was reported that as many as ten girls have been missing from a children home run by Salaam Baalak Trust in Delhi’s Tis Hazari area. The entire matter came to the fore when the police gave a ‘search of kidnapped girls’ advertisement in The Times Of India’s July 02 edition.
According to the ad, the 10 girls have gone missing from DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) Children Home of the Salaam Baalak Trust at Tis Hazri in Delhi. The ad said that an FIR has been registered in Dwarka Sector-23 police station in the matter and considering it as a case of kidnapping, the police are on the lookout for the girls.
Sharing details of the missing girls, the police had urged the public to contact if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of the girls.
10 Girls are Missing/Kidnapped from DMRC Children Home, Salam Balak Trust, Metro Pillar,Tis Hazari, Delhi. Anyone having info about these girls can inform Dwarka Sec 23 Police Station or @DCPDwarka @DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/Hq7u9BbIud
— Jitender Sharma (@capt_ivane) July 2, 2021
The allegedly missing girls- Nisha, Sushmita, Sita, Sushma, Sushila, Sanchmaya, Simmi, Sangeeta, Sweety and Anisha are all in the age group of 20 to 26 years, as per the information provided by police in the advertisement. All of the ten girls belong to various areas in New Delhi. The advertisement issued by the police included the addresses of the girls, and their physical descriptions, along with their photographs.
it is notable that all the ten girls reported by the Delhi Police to be missing from the Children Home are above 18 years of age, which means they are adults, not children.
An attempt was made by the OpIndia team to get a quote from Delhi Police and Salaam Baalak Trust on this issue, however, both were not available for comment.
DMRC denies report
After the ad was published, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation denied the report of girls going missing from its children home, saying that there are no girl inmates in the home. A statement issued by the DMRC said, “An advertisement has been issued by Delhi Police regarding the kidnapping of 10 girls allegedly from DMRC Children Home in Tis Hazari. This is to clarify that the Children Home run by Salaam Balaak Trust only accommodates boys and no girls stay there.”
“Therefore, DMRC’s Children Home has no connection whatsoever with this incident”, the DMRC statement added.
About the Salaam Baalak Trust
The children’s home was constructed by DMRC in 2010 and its responsibility was entrusted to Salaam Baalak Trust. A non-profit organization, Salaam Baalak Trust was formed in 1988 with the proceeds from the film ‘Salaam Bombay!’ which was about the lives and vulnerabilities of street children and directed by Mira Nair.
The Trust since then has been running several shelter homes and children’s homes in the national capital.
Cases of kidnapping and sexual assault
A few years ago, nine girls including a minor were reported missing from a shelter home in Dilshad Gardens. While the staff of the shelter home claimed that the girls fled for no apparent reason, other girls of the shelter home revealed that they were mistreated by the staff.
Significant numbers of cases of sexual harassment of girls in such shelter homes have been reported in the recent past. We reported in June about the owners and staff of a welfare staff in Jharkhand who regularly tortured and sexually abused minor girls. The children’s home was constructed by DMRC in 2010 and its responsibility was entrusted to Salaam Baalak Trust.
