Minor girls studying at a Missionary school reported sexual assault by the principal, father and a teacher teaching at the school. The abuse came to the fore after Child Welfare Committee (CWC) did a surprise inspection drive at the missionary hostel. The incident is reported from a small village in the Madhya Pradesh tribal belt of the Dindori District.
Due to administrative failure, the accused principal, booked under the POCSO act, was released by the police. After his release, the Chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Priyank Kanoongo, visited the school. He met the victims and their family members to help them with the relocation.
In his single visit, as many as seven FIRs were lodged against the culprits, involving the suspension of government officials. He also revelated that massive data pertaining to Baptism, which was recovered from the school documents, are yet to be investigated.
Inspection drive by the CWC members
A First Information Report (number–00/2023) was registered in this case at the Mahila Thana Dindori on March 4 under sections 354, 354(a)(1) i, 323, 34 with sections 7/ 8 of the POCSO Act and sections 75 and 82 of the Juvenile Justice Act.
As per the report, the chairperson of the CWC, Dindori Dhanyakumari Vaish, told the police that on March 3, a team from the State Child Commission head office in Bhopal arrived in Dindori for a surprise inspection drive. The team reached a Missionary school (JDES, Junwani) for the inspection. The CWC members were accompanied by the District Educational Officers (DEO), members of the Women and Child Development department with the state Child Commission members.
During this drive, the boys’ students told visitors about the physical assault and the vulnerable hostel conditions. At the same time, the girls told CWC about the sexual abuse by Nansingh Yadav and Khemchandra sir. Even after repeated complaints to the church father (Sunny Father), no action has been taken against the perpetrators, told the minors.
In this complaint, the name of sister Savita was also mentioned, as she used to torture the minor girls in the hostel. Notably, this complaint was registered only after the NCPCR chairperson intervened in the matter.
मध्यप्रदेश राज्य बाल आयोग के निरीक्षण के दौरान के डिंडोरी के जुनवानी में मिशनरी द्वारा संचालित अवैध चिल्ड्रन होम में 8 बच्चियों ने शिक्षक व पादरी के ख़िलाफ़ यौन शोषण की शिकायत की है,600 आदिवासी बच्चों अवैध रूप से रखा है पुलिस ने अभी FIR नही की है।@dindoridm @ChouhanShivraj
— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) March 4, 2023
Soon after the inspection, the CWC members took these minors off the campus and shifted them to the one-stop centre located in the Dindori District on the same night (March 3). As many as eight minor girls were shifted from the hostel.
Even after sufficient proof, no action was taken against the culprits and the police were not ready to register the complaint. Members of a regional political party, ‘Gondwana Gantantra’ assembled in front of the one-stop centre and threatened the CWC members. They did all of this to bring the girls back to the hostel.
Namely, the chairperson of the party Aman Singh Porte and Radheshyam Kakodiya led the protests; during this they called a minor girl characterless and pronounced their name in front of the media. A separate case has been registered against them.
The Organiser Weekly sent this correspondent on the ground to bring the reality to our readers.
On March 6, Kanoongo visited the town with the Madhya Pradesh Child Commission chairperson Onkar Singh and member Megha Pawar. During this visit, he was accompanied by the local CWC members.
This correspondent reached Dindori, a District located in eastern Madhya Pradesh bordering Chhattisgarh. The district is one of the 250 most backward districts in the country. It is a tribal belt with the maximum population from the Baiga tribe. The other tribes include Gond, Bhariya, Dhuliya, Agariya and Vanvasi.
The village Junwani where the school and hostels were located, is around 30 kilometres from the Dindori District. Before moving to the hostel, Kanoongo met four minor girls and their family members near Samnapur’s one-stop centre.
Among four girls, one was a ‘divyang’ child, and in fear of the church authorities, she was not ready to leave the hostel. The NCPCR chairperson sent the girls to their choice of school and hostel in the town. Two of them wanted to be doctors, and one said she will become a police officer.
All of them belonged to the tribes, with surnames like Behsa, Matreese and others.
This correspondent accessed the statements of the minor children on camera, where they told the CWC members that teacher Khemchandra used to press the breasts of the minor girls in class. He used to touch the part used for urination. He would ask them to bend down so that he can stand behind them.
(Organiser Weekly has access to those statement copies)
Other than this, these students told the CWC members that they found a dead cat in the water tank used for drinking purposes. The students mostly remain ill due to the unhygienic practices followed by the school administration.
The team then reached the school. The school was built over a huge land, almost an acre; as soon as one enters the premise, they can see a big church in front. On the left of the Church was the boy’s mess and on the right was the girl’s hostel. The boy’s hostel was located opposite the Church, and beside it was the principal’s office.
Soon, the school administration took Kanoongo to the office, where he checked the registration and clearance documents. Shockingly, irrespective of being a fully government-funded institution, the school was charging fees from the students. The hostel fee per month is rupees 1600 whereas the tuition fees are much high.
Other than this, a register as proof of Baptism was also recovered. Kanoongo told Organiser Weekly, “We received a complaint from the minor girls that they were sexually abused by the school authorities. During the inspection, we also found records of conversion activities. After FIR in the said matter was registered the local political leaders issued threats to the CWC members. They even took the accused from the police custody with them.”
He added, “The visit opened a pandora box as the school was receiving government aid for four hostels whereas in reality they only had two. They were charging money from students, abusing them sexually, were converting them to Christianity, the condition of the hostels were vulnerable, and students were forced to have low-quality food and whatnot”.
The members of Tribal Welfare Departments were involved in the matter and hence asked the administration to take action against them, added Kanoongo. The collector suspended the Block Education Officer (BEO) of both the Tribal Welfare Department and the district-level BEO.
He informed about the suspension of the Town Inspector (TI), in whose presence the accused principal was released.
Apart from this, an FIR against Gondwana Gantrata’s Aman Singh Porte was registered under charges of POCSO and the Juvenile Justice Act for revealing the name of a minor victim in the media. Other than this four FIRs have been instituted against the school and church authorities for taking government grants illegally.
Also, an FIR under IPC section 354 has been registered against goons who threatened CWC members at the one-stop centre on the intervening night of the 4-5 March.
अप्डेट
डिंडोरी पुलिस ने वन स्टाप सेंटर के निदेशक की शिकायत पर उनकी सुरक्षा में रखी गयीं पीड़ित बच्चियों को जबरन वहाँ से ले जाने कोशिश करने की 5 मार्च की घटना पर गोंडवाना गणतंत्र पार्टी के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष अमान सिंह पोर्ते के विरुद्ध FIR दर्ज की है।
धन्यवाद @ChouhanShivraj जी https://t.co/bKGpDlPijq pic.twitter.com/R0IIqsQ81i— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) March 8, 2023
From the office, Kanoongo reached the boy’s mess, where students were eating food in an abandoned class. No chapatis were provided to them, and the meal on the day of the visit included Dal, Egg curry and rice only.
This correspondent accompanied the CWC and Child Commission female members to the girl’s hostel, where girls were sitting on the floor to have food. The same menu was served in the girl’s hostel as well.
The correspondent went to the rooms and washroom, which were in a very ugly state.
While these officials were moving towards the hostel, the locals (mostly converted Christians) assembled at the campus tried stopping them. They were trying to confront the minors saying the Church and its employees could not do any wrong with the children.
This correspondent spoke to some of them; a woman named Chanda Kumari Baghel, who was calling her a converted Christian, said, “We are here as the girls have falsely framed a case against Father and the principal. After Sunday prayers, the authorities told them about the case and then they decided to call for a protest against the commission.”
Asked if her children studied at the school or live in the hostel she said, no. She is here just to register her protest against the minor girls who have falsely framed a case against the principal.
Asked how would she know what was going on in the hostel if none of her children studied there, she said she has full faith in the teachers; they are gods to them.
The NCPCR and CWC members brought sweets and colours for the children as it was the ‘Holi’ a Hindu festival the next day. The students first said they were not allowed to celebrate Holi for it being a Missionary school. They said they cannot put ‘Teeka’ on the forehead as that too was not allowed. But the NCPCR and the CWC members counselled them and then the kids were overjoyed and played Holi with them.
It is pertinent to mention here that the correspondent checked the school diary, which noted the history of the Church and details of the founder. As per the information, the founder of the school and Church in Junwani was Father Pemence who was born and brought up in the Netherlands.
In 1939, he arrived Junwani from Nainpur, a town in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. He started the school from a small room which later turned into this big campus. In 1988 the school was expanded to class 10, and in 1997 it converted to a Higher secondary school.
Kanoongo, in his inspection, found details of Baptism from 1939. A school located at the heart of the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh is into conversion since 1939.
It needs to be inspected why the members of the Gondwana Gantantra party are trying to protect the molesters and abusers. They too are involved in the racket, or it is a bigger game. There is a cent per cent chance of a big conversion racket to be running behind closed doors. More than hundreds of families assembled there said they have converted to Christianity and had done it on their own.
They regularly attend the prayer sessions; the women were wearing cross symbols with their nuptial chains and looking like any ordinary Hindu woman.
Another alarming question is that these people are using their Dalit certificates to seek the benefits of government programmes but, on the ground, call themselves Christians. De-listing needs to be done. The students also select Christianity in the religion column but are members of ‘Tribal welfare groups’.
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