By Matters India Reporter

Intkheri, Nov 11, 2021: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) that made a surprise search of a girls’ hostel in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has demanded action against Catholic nuns who manage it.

The nuns have appealed the district collector of Raisen district to conduct an impartial probe into the allegation.

The NCPCR is a statutory body established in 2005 with the mandate “to ensure that all laws, policies, programs, and administrative mechanisms are in consonance with the child rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A child for the commission is all those under 18 years. It functions under the federal Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Priyank Kanoongo, the commission chairperson, led a team of officials on November 8 to inspect the hostel at Intkheri village in Raisen district, some 50 km northeast of Bhopal, the state capital.

The team entered the girls’ hostel without a female official and searched the dormitory and bags of the girl children.

They also found a copy of the Bible in the possession of Christian students and alleged the hostel was promoting religious conversion.

The following day another team inspected the hostel and the students told them they were staying in the hostel on their free will as they did not have facility to attend school.

The officials also asked the students if they were being forced to learn Christianity or involved in Christian prayers.

The hostel houses 19 students who attend regular classes in a nearby government high school. Among them five are Christians, who came from northeastern India.

The commission’s November 9 letter to the district collector ordered sending the students to their homes alleging some serious lapses in their care at the hostel.

The students, however, certified to the officials that they were well taken care, with proper food and facilities for studies.

The Christian children said they had brought the copies of the Bible from their homes and they read it as part of their routine life.

Meanwhile, the nuns also demanded the district collector to inspect the hostel, refuting the commission’s finding.

The commission chairman had shared the video of the raid on social media apparently to target the nuns for providing facilities to the poor girl children to get education.

The commission objected to the hostel functioning without a valid registration.

The hostel is managed by the Sisters of Jesus, a diocesan congregation of the diocese of Sagar.

“We are being harassed for helping the poor children to get education,” Sister Alice Jacob, the congregation’s superior general, told Matters India November 11.

She said they started the hostel in 2014 following requests from parents of the poor girls who wanted to study.

“We found many had to drop out after class five (fifth grade) for want of facilities to go for further studies, especially transportation to attend distant schools and thus we started the hostel,” the nun explained.

Asked about the non-registration of the hostel, Sister Jacob said, “We had applied for registration online as per government guidelines in 2020, but still the government has not completed the process. The government has issued us and id and password. It is for the government to complete the process and we are not at fault,” she added.

The nuns also disputed the commission’s claim that its team had female members saying, “Our nuns even asked them why they entered their premises without a female official. Bu Kanongoo ignored it showing his identity card and carried out the search.”

She said it was “unfortunate that officials of such high rank did not even follow the basic rules that whenever some enter a girls’ hostel they should have at least one female member in the team.”

The nun also said they want the district collector to hold a proper probe and if there is anything wrong “we are ready to rectify.”

Madhya Pradesh is among many states in India where Christians and their institutions have been facing attacks from rightwing Hindu activists who are opposed missionaries and their works.

The Sisters of Jesus was set up in 1980 by the then Bishop Clemens Thottungal of Sagar to work among the poor in rural areas of the Syro-Malabar diocese.