Complaints filed against missionary NGO for FCRA violation, funding conversion of SC/ST children

For breaking the Juvenile Justice Act, SC ST Act and the FCRA Act, Complaints have been registered against a Christian missionary NGO targeting children, especially from nomadic tribes of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

In the name of social service, the NGO operates ‘children’s homes’ and targets janjaati children for conversion.

Bethanya Vision Trust(BVT), an FCRA NGO functioning from Tamil Nadu has been found making use of foreign funds to convert children, targeting Narikuravar and Chenchu janjaati children of TN and AP respectively. NGO also targets children of daily labourers who cannot afford to send them to schools or have an aged person to take care of them at residence. It runs 2 ‘children’s homes’ in Tamil Nadu and 2 more in Andhra Pradesh.

Bethanya Vision Trust declares to be a Christian Ministry on its website. It states that “bearing witness to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior and of the benefits of knowing and following Him” is its motto.

The Gypsy New Life Children’s Home, founded in 2015, and run by the FCRA NGO targets Narikuravar children and houses 60 of them at present with the local pastor leading it. Narikuravar is a nomadic tribe that hunts in the wild and trades beads and trinkets now for a living. They have to leave their families for a long time and most of the time children are left in the elders’ care.

The government neglected this community and has no access to the benefits for the underprivileged or to provide proper education to their kids as it needs caste certificates. Hence they are vulnerable to these missionary predators. Bethanya Vision Trust targets these children and brings them to their ‘children’s home’ promising education.

Quarry workers’ children are also targeted in a similar manner and another children’s home is run by Bethanya in Thiruneermalai. It began functioning in 2018 and has 50 inmates now taken care of by pastor Raj and his wife Layaal.

Bethanya Vision Trust also handles a Tribal Children’s Home in Andhra Pradesh housing 50 children of Chenchu tribe, native to the state. Established in 2015, this home is also assisted by a local pastor.

NGO runs a Community Centre in Donakonda, Andhra Pradesh for the children of daily labourers. From the pictures public on BVT international and BVT India’s website, it is found that these children are made to sit through Christian prayer meetings and pray.

BVT India has also an association with Bethanya Vision Trust in Washington, USA which owns a fundraising page on its website for many children who have Hindu-sounding names while their parents retain Christian names.

In this regard, Legal Rights Forum has discovered violations of the Juvenile Justice Act, SC ST Act and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in the children’s homes run by Bethanya Vision Trust. It has filed complaints spotlighting these violations aspiring to revoke its FCRA license.