Circumcision fallout
SHILLONG: The East Khasi Hills District Administration has instructed the district police to issue notices to all children-based institutions like hostels and orphanages, to register themselves with the police and at the same time, to provide details of all the inmates taken care by such institutions.
This direction came after a few of such institutions came under scanner for mistreating and using the children in the name of education like the Rev Miller’s case and the recent alleged forced circumcision on 11 boys by the Meherbaan orphanage of Laban without taking the consent of the parents.
According to the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal, the District Police Chief will issue notice to all the institutions which takes care of children, be it a hostel or an orphanage, to provide inputs about their inmates and also to get themselves registered with the police for safety and security purposes.
Goyal also informed that as per the magisterial report on forced circumcision by Meherbaan orphanage on 11 boys at NEIGRIHMS, the said orphanage has not been registered as yet with the Social Welfare Department even though, notice of the same had been forwarded to them by the department.
Elaborating more on the role of NEIGRIHMS in this regard, Goyal said that the reports have given a clean chit to the doctors and staffs of the hospital on their involvement in committing any offences of this sort, however, it suggested that NEIGRIHMS should conduct an internal enquiry into the matter to sort out the lapses in as far as registration of patients is concerned.
“The magistrate also suggested to the hospital authority to review the functioning of the OPD (Out Patient Department) and the casualty ward, for different departments to coordinate in a proper manner and to ensure that registration of the patients is done properly,” the DC said.
In as far as the Maherbaan case is concerned; Goyal said that as per the procedure of the hospital authority, all that was needed was the consent from the parents to conduct circumcision and the consent were given by two persons who cited themselves as guardian. “The hospital authority should have been more careful with such cases and they should have enquired more on the relationship between the guardian and the boys,” he added.