Kanpur: Fifty-seven girls at a state-run children's shelter home in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district have tested positive for COVID-19, with five of them found to be pregnant, an administration official said on Sunday.
Two other girls in the shelter home, who are also pregnant, have tested negative for the virus, he said.
"The five pregnant girls, who have been found COVID-19 positive, were referred by the Child Welfare Committees of Agra, Etah, Kannauj, Firozabad and Kanpur under the POCSO Act. Two other pregnant girls have tested negative for COVID-19. The seven girls were pregnant at time, when they came to the shelter home," Kanpur DM Brahma Dev Ram Tiwari told reporters.
One of the five pregnant girls has also been found to be HIV positive while another one is suffering from Hepatitis C.
READ:| Priyanka attacks Uttar Pradesh government over media report about Kanpur child shelter home
The district magistrate added that two girls are undergoing treatment at LLR Hospital in Kanpur, while three others are undergoing treatment at private hospital.
SSP Dinesh Kumar also said that the girls were pregnant when they were admitted to the shelter home.
"The girls were pregnant when they came to the shelter home, they did not get pregnant here," he said, adding that "the girls had been taken in December 2019 and their pregnancies were immediately detected."
Meanwhile, Poonam Kapoor, a member of the UP State Women's Commission, told the media that the girls were probably infected with corona after shelter home staff visited a Kanpur hospital with two girls and came into contact with COVID-19 patients.
The 57 inmates of the shelter home who have tested positive during the past one week have been quarantined and are being treated. Most of them are asymptomatic. The shelter home will be sanitised on Monday.
In a Facebook post, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had attacked the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the media reports about the girls being found pregnant at the shelter home.
"The entire story of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case is in front of the country. Such a case had also come to light in Deoria in UP," Priyanka Gandhi said.
In this scenario, such an incident again coming out shows that everything is suppressed in the name of investigations, but very inhuman incidents are taking place in government child protection homes, she said.
Also, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav demanded an investigate into the matter adding that outrage has spread in the state after this news. He also demanded immediate treatment for the girls found COVID-19 positive.
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कानपुर के सरकारी बाल संरक्षण गृह से आई ख़बर से उप्र में आक्रोश फैल गया है. कुछ नाबालिग लड़कियों के गर्भवती होने का गंभीर खुलासा हुआ है. इनमें 57 कोरोना से व एक एड्स से भी ग्रसित पाई गयी है, इनका तत्काल इलाज हो.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) June 22, 2020 Attach files" class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
सरकार शारीरिक शोषण करनेवालों के ख़िलाफ़ तुरंत जाँच बैठाए.
Attach files">कानपुर के सरकारी बाल संरक्षण गृह से आई ख़बर से उप्र में आक्रोश फैल गया है. कुछ नाबालिग लड़कियों के गर्भवती होने का गंभीर खुलासा हुआ है. इनमें 57 कोरोना से व एक एड्स से भी ग्रसित पाई गयी है, इनका तत्काल इलाज हो.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) June 22, 2020
सरकार शारीरिक शोषण करनेवालों के ख़िलाफ़ तुरंत जाँच बैठाए.
Attach filesकानपुर के सरकारी बाल संरक्षण गृह से आई ख़बर से उप्र में आक्रोश फैल गया है. कुछ नाबालिग लड़कियों के गर्भवती होने का गंभीर खुलासा हुआ है. इनमें 57 कोरोना से व एक एड्स से भी ग्रसित पाई गयी है, इनका तत्काल इलाज हो.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) June 22, 2020
सरकार शारीरिक शोषण करनेवालों के ख़िलाफ़ तुरंत जाँच बैठाए.
"Outrage has spread in Uttar Pradesh due to the news from the Government Child Protection Home in Kanpur. There has been serious disclosure of some minor girls are pregnant. Of these, 57 have been found to be suffering from corona and one from AIDS, they should be treated immediately. The government should immediately take up the investigation against those who were involved in physical abuse," Yadav tweeted (translated from Hindi).
Speaking exclusively with ETV Bharat, UP Child Protection Commission Chairman Dr Vishesh Gupta claimed that the entire record of the pregnant minor girls has been maintained and a lawsuit has been filed by the girls under POCSO Act but revealing their original identification details to the public will be against the law as they are minor and are the victim of sexual harassment.
Gupta also said that the opposition should also show some sensitiveness on the matter as objectionable comments made the victims of sexual harassment come under legal purview.
The local administration has been ordered to check the arrangements in the girl shelter homes across the state. A team of Child Protection Commission will visit Kanpur to take stock of the situation and submit a report.
Inputs from PTI
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