All Mother Teresa homes inspected amid baby-selling scandal

[niyad]

All Mother Teresa homes inspected amid baby-selling scandal

India orders examination of all institutions run by her charity after claims against two staff

Michael Safi in Delhi


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Police stand outside a home run by the Missionaries of Charity, in Ranchi, India. Photograph: Reuters

India has ordered the immediate inspection of all childcare homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, the Catholic congregation established by Mother Teresa, after employees at one shelter were accused of selling babies for adoption.The inspections were announced by the ministry for women and childhood development after a Missionaries of Charity home in Jharkhand state was shut this month following the arrest of a nun and a social worker employed there. Sister Konsalia Balsa and social worker Anima Indwar were accused of having already sold three babies from the home, which provides shelter for pregnant, unmarried women. They were accused of trying to sell a fourth baby, a two-month old boy born in March, for about £1,325. The parents, a couple from Uttar Pradesh state, were told the proposed adoption was legitimate and that the money was for hospital expenses. “Taking cognisance of the recent cases of illegal adoptions carried out by Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand, [minister for women and children] Maneka Gandhi has instructed the states to get childcare homes run by Missionaries of Charity all over the country inspected immediately,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Missionaries of Charity, established in 1950 by Mother Teresa – now Saint Teresa of Calcutta – declined to comment on the inspections but earlier said the congregation was appalled by the baby-trafficking claims. “We are completely shocked by what has happened in our home in Ranchi,” a statement from the order said. “It should have never happened. It is against our moral convictions. We are carefully looking into the matter.”

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The Missionaries of Charity stopped facilitating adoptions in India in 2015 after government reforms that removed obstacles for single, divorced or separated people to adopt children.
India has more than 230,000 children in official and unofficial shelters, according to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, but estimates of the number of orphans in the country are as high as 30 million.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/17/india-inspection-missionaries-of-charity-homes-mother-teresa