Madhya Pradesh: CM Yadav orders action against 'illegal' children's homes

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav on Sunday directed officials to take action against an illegally run children's home in Bhopal and said the 26 girl inmates of a children's home who allegedly went missing were safe and had been located by the Madhya Pradesh police on Saturday.

In a post on X, Yadav said the girls who went missing from the children's home at Pawalia in Bhopal were safe and had been identified.

He also told senior officials via video conference from Indore that strict action should be taken against children's homes which are operating without due permissions and registration, an official release said.

"The case of the disappearance of 26 girls from a children's home operating without permission in Parwalia police station area of Bhopal has come to my notice," former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also said in a post on X.

The police have registered a first information report (FIR) under sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 on the complaint of district programme officer Ramgopal Yadav against Anil Mathew for allegedly running the children's home illegally, reports PTI.

Mathew failed to provide a registration certificate for the facility, and 26 of the 68 girl inmates of the home went missing, the complainant claimed.

In a post on X, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Priyank Kanoongo alleged that children at the illegal shelter home were forced to practice Christianity.

The FIR stated that of the 68 girls (aged between 6 and 18) registered at the home, 26 of them had been reported missing. According to the report, the home was not being operated under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 and was unregistered.