For NGO Child Line, it all began in 2001 when it received a call from children staying at Colaba’s Anchorage shelter home, alleging physical and sexual abuse. What followed was years of counselling and efforts to rehabilitate the children, along with efforts to follow the case through in courts.

On Wednesday, when the Bombay High Court acquitted two Britons and their Indian colleague, who ran the shelter, of charges of paedophilia, the child rights group was both shocked and dismayed over the court’s verdict.

“It is a great setback for us. There are a few kids who were brave enough to stand up in court and testify. We’ve been fighting for seven years and waiting for justice,” said Inu Stephen, senior programme coordinator at Child Line, who has been closely associated with the case.

Professor Kalindi Mazumdar, a member of the Maharashtra State Monitoring Commission (MSMC), which visited the children at the shelter, said that she was saddened by the verdict but pointed to the other, equally pressing, matter of the abysmal state of shelters for street children.

“Out of 150 to 200 institutions, only around a fifth are really any good. Most are neglected and there is widespread sexual abuse,” she said, adding they had seen bite marks on some boys at the Anchorage and some had told the visiting experts that they were beaten with canes and slippers.

Pointing to the need for better evidence gathering and follow-ups from the investigating agencies, Nishit Kumar, Child Line’s head for advocacy and awareness, said: “We are outraged because these people got away even after the children filed their testimony.”

Kumar adds that while a committee was formed to monitor the victims’ rehabilitation, little came of that. “Even the fine that was supposed to be paid by the accused wasn’t paid,” he said.

“What are we telling the kids? That their voices don’t matter? That they are not important?” asks Stephen.

Professor Asha Bajpai, another member of the MSMC, said that the criminal justice system needed to be quickened. “The criminal justice system in the country is too delayed,” she said.