Dimapur, Nov 20 (MExN): As the winter season brings colder days in its wake, the Old Timers club of Diphupar warmed the hearts of the juvenile inmates in the Special Home and Observatory Home as they distributed winter clothes to the inmates at Diphupar here today. Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary of the Club, Tsukti Longkumer advised the children that they know why they were there and that they should always listen to their conscience and try to reform so that they might become good citizens in the future.
Longkumer further called upon the people to donate something for the welfare of the home saying that the children are very young and that they also need the same love and attention which we get in our childhood days. Giving a brief highlight of the charity work, the President of the Club, Philips Lotha said that the club members had deliberated for sometimes in the past about some charity works and finally they held a fundraising event to make their dream come true. On the whole, around thirteen odd inmates got the winter jackets from the club.
The other side of the story
The Special Home and Observation Home at Diphupar which is under the Social Welfare Department of the State Government portrays a sorry picture of the State’s only juvenile Centre. The Special Home has no separation walls for boys and girls, no guards, no psychologists and not enough man power for the inmates who are in fact children with criminal mindset and who are there for a wrong reasons like theft, rape and murder.
Speaking to The Morung Express, before the cloth distribution programme by the Old Timers Club, the Superintend of the Home lamented about the poor infrastructure like lack of man power especially trained psychologists to give counseling to the young criminals. He said that there were two posts of psychologist but till date there has not been a single psychologist employed for the deliquents. The home also has only one car and that also for the Superintendent only. Besides that, there are no guards, so the grade IV employees are acting as guards, he said. No wonder, one employee said that two inmates had reportedly escaped from the home and that they have not been traced till date.
The Resident Matron, Anhili, on being asked about the inmates confessed that from time to time they face problems from the delinquents. She lamented the fact that there was no separation wall to separate the boys and the four girls in the home, she further expressed her apprehension that some of the inmates were admitted because of ‘rape cases’. She also showed an inmate charged of murder; he was looking very young, very innocent and very shy but the matron said that the employees were afraid of him because of the fact that he was a bit psychotic who believes that by killing people he can gain super-human powers, the matron was fearful not only for her life but for the life of other inmates also. The Matron then deeply lamented the fact that there were no proper rooms to keep them, no guards and no sufficient man power to help the young children who in the words of EK Philip Lotha are the “victims of circumstances”.
Both the Matron and the Superintendent of the Home appealed to the public and the government to extend all possible help towards the home for the welfare of the inmates and the society as a whole.
