The Jharkhand government in eastern India has asked Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity nuns to reopen their orphanage.
The orphanage was shut down 16 months ago as police began probing baby-selling charges against the nuns.
The orphanage is attached to a care centre the nuns run for unwed mothers.
The government closed the orphanage after police arrested Sister Concilia Baxla on charges of selling a baby for money.
The 22 children in the children’s’ home were moved to government shelter homes.
Sister Baxla, 62, was released on bail on September 27.
However, soon after her release two similar cases of baby-selling were filed against the nuns’ centre; the latest in November.
Police continue to investigate.
Father Anand David Xalxo, spokesperson of Ranchi Archdiocese said the nuns are ready to help the needy and reopen the orphanage.
However, “We need more clarification from the government before we reopen the shelter home,” he told ucanews on Nov. 25.
“On one hand, the government wants us to start adoption, and on the other police file false cases against the nuns, with stinging allegations such as child trafficking”.
“How can we function under such circumstances?” he asked.
The state’s Child Welfare Committee request to reopen the orphanage comes a week after Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi intervened seeking federal investigation of the committee’s role in the alleged cases of baby selling.
Mascarenhas said the nuns gave all three babies for adoption with the consent of the Child Welfare Committee and complied with all rules and regulations.
He says they also have documents to prove it.
The bishop wanted police to investigate the Child Welfare Committee, not the nuns.
“The nuns did everything as per the law and approval of the Child Welfare Committee. But the officials of the government body are spared and only the nuns are being harassed”.
“We need to know the truth,” he said.
Mascarenhas also sought the whereabouts of 22 children forcefully taken away from the nun’s care last year.
Child Welfare Committee chairperson Rupa Verma said the government agency was facing problems to shelter children of single parents and it wants the shelter to reopen.
With an election underway, the Christian vote is seen as crucial for the electoral success of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party; the party collaborating with Christians in social projects.
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