The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed eight of the 44 girls in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse case to be repatriated with their families and asked the State to provide financial and medical aid for the children.
A Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana directed the State to assess the compensation payable to them and report back to the court. The court asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to submit a status report on the condition of the remaining girls in two months.
The court’s decision came after TISS filed its field action project ‘Koshish’ in a sealed cover, vouching that the eight girls were fit to return to their families.
The Supreme Court had in July permitted Koshish to meet the victims and the families to understand and chalk out a conducive plan for their rehabilitation.
Expert opinion
The Bench had agreed with advocate Vrinda Grover that experts from Koshish should closely interact with the victims to help them out of their trauma.
Ms. Grover had said the outreach would include finding out the circumstances under which the girls got estranged from their families — whether they had faced any hostility at home, the financial status of their family, whether the family would be receptive to having the child back home etc.
