PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has brought to conclusion suo motu proceedings it had initiated in the wake of the worrying condition of the Protective Home for Women after the PWD engineers reported that the work on improving the condition of the protective home is nearly complete.
According to an affidavit submitted before the High Court, Phase I, which comprised shifting of the Juvenile Justice Board from the Protective Home building to the Apna Ghar building, had been completed.
Phase II which comprised of civil works to be done within the Protective Home building and other construction work. Part (i) involved construction of a compound wall with six metres height, Part(ii) involved construction of rooms for security officials and drivers while Part (iii) involved civil works of repairs and renovations at the Protective Home building.
Phase III comprised of painting, furnishing and other miscellaneous works at Protective Home building say that Part (iii) of Phase II and Phase III were completed on 20.8.2022. The only works which remained to be completed were Parts (i) and (ii) of Phase II, the affidavit stated.
“According to us, the orders made in this petition have been complied with. Therefore, by accepting the affidavit of compliance, we close this proceedings,” the Bench of Justices M S Sonak and Valmiki Menezes Sa, said.
Back in August 2016, the Bombay High Court at Goa had taken suo motu cognisance of the living conditions in the protective home after newspaper reports indicated that the women inmates, most of whom were those who needed to be rehabilitated after being rescued from commercial sex work were living in “unhygienic conditions.”
The High Court appointed committee tasked with inspecting the living standards of the Protective Home for Women rescued from Immoral Trafficking has, in a report submitted, found that the rescued women are being kept in squalid conditions with “no exposure to open air or to sunlight.”
Earlier the High Court had expressed concern and stressed that it was “the duty of the concerned Departments to ensure that such inmates in protective homes are provided with their basic necessities and are not deprived of their basic needs. The deprivation in life suffered by such inmates cannot lead to mean that the basic facilities are not provided at the protective homes.”
