In the light of the gruesome sexual assaults in child care institutions in Deoria and Muzaffarpur, the apex child rights body and AIIMS have joined hands for conducting psychological profiling of juvenile sex offenders.

In May, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) held a meeting with AIIMS officials to conduct a study on 'child abuse among children and adolescents in CCIs'. The NCPCR would also be collaborating with AIIMS for conducting a study on 'Psychological Profiling of the Mind of Incarcerated Child Sexual Offenders in India: Implications for Development of Treatment Intervention'.

"After critically reviewing the proposal, the study has been further undertaken to be expanded across the national demographic in consultation with AIIMS," according to a report released by the NCPCR. For conducting psychological profiling of the mind of incarcerated child sexual offenders, it was decided that focus would be on the profiling of juvenile delinquents and to ensure implications for treatment approaches rather than restricting the sample to child sexual offenders only.

The study has been ordered in the light of sexual assaults in child care institutions (CCIs) in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and Muzaffarpur in Bihar. In Muzaffarpur last year, about 34 minor girls were allegedly sexually abused at a shelter home. An FIR was registered against 11 people, including Brajesh Thakur, the owner of the NGO which ran the government-funded shelter home for destitute girls.

Sexual assault against girls in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh also came to light last year when a 10-year-old girl managed to flee from the shelter home and reported about the plight of the inmates, who were reportedly sexually abused by the couple running the shelter, after which police conducted a raid and 24 girls were rescued.