NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, September 24, turned down a plea file by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) seeking direction for an SC monitored time-bound investigation into cases of children being sold allegedly by shelter homes in Jharkhand, linked with ‘Missionaries of charity’, an organisation founded by Mother Teresa.
Coming down heavily on the petitioner (NCPCR), a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh dismissed the plea, citing that the relief sought by petitioner is vague and unsubstantiated, hence cannot be considered. “Don’t drag the SC into your agenda. What kind of relief is sought in your petition? How can we pass such directions? The petition is totally misconstrued,” said the bench to the NCPCR counsel.
The apex court further underscored that the NCPCR was empowered to conduct enquiry and take action in accordance with law under the Commission for Protection of Child Right (CPCR), Act, 2005. The plea was filed by the NCPCR in the year 2020 in which the child rights body had soughed direction for an SIT investigation of all such organisation in Jharkhand, citing enforcement of fundamental rights of prohibition of trafficking in human beings as guaranteed under Article 23 of Indian constitution.
According to the reports, the petitioner in the plea had claimed that several inconsistencies have been found in various Children’s homes across many states who have been added as parties in the plea, this includes cases of child rights violation in the state of Jharkhand where the authorities had adopted a callous approach to protect minors.
The rights body in its plea had further claimed that shocking revelations have been made by the victims during the course of inquiry of such cases which includes the details of children being sold in the children shelter homes. These details were emphatically brought to the notice of the state government of Jharkhand but continuous attempts were made to sabotage and derail the inquiry.
Cases of conversion of children by missionaries
Notably, a huge conversion racket being operated in the State of Jharkhand was busted in September last year after as many as 12 tribal girls, including 8 minors were rescued from a house in Pipradih village of Rohtas district following a tip-off.
The rescued girls were part of a larger group of around 71 children, who were being transported to a seminary cum conversion centre in Nagpur of Maharashtra. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that hundreds of children from the bordering areas of Jharkhand and Bihar were sent to the said seminary on a regular basis.
The racket was busted after Savita Dey, Director of a sub-centre of Childline India, got input about children being taken to Nagpur, after which she, with the help of Railway police, managed to rescue one of the girls of the group from Dehri railway station. Upon enquiring the girl informed that around 50 other children had already boarded the train while 12 of them are kept at a house in Pipradih.
A team of officials then raided and rescued as many as 12 tribal girls, alongside nabbing an agent identified as Ram Baran Oraon, a resident of Garhwa from a house in Pipradih. During the couse of investigation, Oraon disclosed that he was assigned with a task to identify poor Hindu families with minor children from Garhwa district of Jharkhand and neighboring Rohtas district of Bihar.
It was then reported that children, after arriving at the seminary, had to enroll themselves into an 18 month long so-called motivational course during which they were subjected to brainwashing and then converted to Christianity. After embracing Christianity, a few of the selected candidates among them were then assigned with a task to bring more children to the said center.
Significantly, Organiser have also been reporting about cases linked to violation of child rights in Child homes being run by people associated with missionaries. In a similar case reported by the Organiser from Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district in June last year, several discrepancies were found after a NCPCR team conducted a surprise inspection at a Child home on May 29.
Following the inspection, NCPCR Chairperson, Priyank Kanoongo and members of the Child Welfare Committee also filed a complaint against the administrator of the child home after it was found that minors were forced to offer Christian religious prayers, barred from visiting temples and following Hindu religious customs during their stay at the said Child home.
