Inmates of Balamandira held mirror to poor conditions in government-run Balamandira Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gave a patient hearing to all the children during the interaction Strangely, minister for women and child welfare Umashree was not present
"We don't get sanitary napkins when we menstruate. We have to show the used ones to get one from our warden. There's no other way to get one," is how one girl poured her heart out to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah about the in-human conditions that they live in at the Balamandira. Balamandir is a government-run shelter for girls.
During an interaction with students at the Balamandira, Chief Minister was moved to tears when one of the inmates recounted her horror of staying in the government-run centre. The girl went on to say that at least 40 inmates of Balamandira were living in pitiable conditions. They are not served food properly, leave alone getting water - at least once a week - to take a bath. "We consider this as our second home, but this is how they really treat us," she cried before the chief minister.
Shocked and seemingly embarrassed, chief minister Siddaramaiah took the Women and Child Welfare Department officials concerned to task there itself. He wondered how the officials could be such merciless towards children. He warned the officials with stringent punishment for putting the girls in such turmoil.
Lakshmi, another girl from Gadag pleaded chief minister to counsel her parents who were forcing her to get married. Lakshmi is still in school, and she wants to study further. But her parents back home are forcing her to get married so that they would not have to take the burden of educating her. Moved by her plight, Siddaramaiah promised her to depute officials to her place to counsel her parents.
