The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson, Priyank Kanoongo, took a hard line against the state of disrepair of the Gandhi family’s unregistered orphanage at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh’s Anand Bhawan complex.
“The unlicensed orphanage run by the Gandhi family in Prayagraj’s Anand Bhawan complex, where your leader Rahul Gandhi used to rest during his stay in Allahabad and gather strength during the election campaign, has no doors in the restrooms for the teenage orphan girls,” he posted. Families did not accept orphan girls, and the orphanage got funding from outside sources. I, along with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, did an inspection and found all of this; a formal complaint was filed.
He went on, “This revealed the truth about your party and the Gandhi family, not national shame. India is a very great country; therefore, please stop calling the Gandhi family the “country” as a well-respected member of parliament. In addition, he attached a photo of Rahul Gandhi’s tweet showing him with the children at the orphanage and gave a link to a news piece on the same orphanage.
This occurred just a few hours after Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Krishna Tankha accused NCPCR of “sensationalism.” The head of the Congress said that agencies like the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights ought to be within the jurisdiction of the Central Government.
If the Modi government was serious about making India a multitrillion-dollar global force, he told them to keep NCPCR from being “wayward and sensational.”
In 2020, the highest child rights body in India revealed serious irregularities and illegalities in the institution’s operations, and as a result, the Uttar Pradesh government was asked to relocate the inmates of the Children National Institute, a shelter home for girls in Allahabad’s Anand Bhawan, the ancestral home of the Nehru-Gandhi family, immediately “till their living conditions are improved.”
Following a social audit it commissioned, the NCPCR carried out an inspection to ascertain the condition of the girls living in Jawaharlal Nehru, an orphanage founded in 1947 to provide a temporary haven for children who had lost their parents during Partition. The shelter house is located in the Anand Bhawan neighbourhood of Swaraj Bhawan and is run by a trust.
Although the location was described as “one of the most premier and oldest in India, established by the first Prime Minister” in a letter to the state, the Commission also pointed out that “the physical condition of the home was so pathetic that it was difficult to believe.” Its toilets had no doors, and its basic maintenance was appalling. It was advised that females remain in alternative housing until the shelter home’s condition improves.
They came to the realisation that the girls are only given one meal per day by the institute and that they are reliant on donations from outside sources for additional meals. “There is not enough staff to look after the girls, there are not enough beds for them to sleep in, and there is not enough documentation about their backgrounds,” a top official from the Commission stated. Priyank Kanoongo voiced his dismay at the severe violations of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act as well as the abnormalities in the institute’s operations that were discovered as a result of the investigation that was carried out as part of the social audit that was carried out by an independent agency.
