Special Dialogue by HJS : Are these church controlled shelter homes or oppression centres ?
There are instances of sexual abuse of children, exploitation of women, etc. in churches. When such incidents occur in cities, only a few of them come to light. Those that become known are the tip of the iceberg; however, when such incidents occur in tribal areas and villages, nobody comes to know about them. Seeing the number of such incidents, it is time State Governments conduct inspection and inquiry of such shelter homes controlled by churches in their State. This demand was made by Mr Anil Dhir, the National General Secretary of the Bharat Raksha Manch. He was speaking during the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti’s (HJS) online Special Dialogue on the topic ‘Are these church controlled shelter homes or oppression centres ?’.
Mr Anil Dhir further added that whenever there are such atrocities in the church, the media remains silent; however, when Hindu Ascetics and Saints are accused, the news gets prominence. These are double standards. The churches in India are funded from abroad on a large scale. The Government has no control over this either.
During the dialogue, the scholar of Christian Studies from Telangana Ms Ester Dhanraj said, the Christian organisations are becoming abuse centres for women and children. This is nothing new, in fact, instances of such abuses in church premises since 1890 have come to limelight all over the world. The priests, who were responsible for the atrocities in churches, were not at all punished by the management of the various churches; instead, they were protected. There are cases of misappropriation of the church funds in India as well as abroad; however, no one speaks of these financial scams; conversely, in the name of preventing financial scams, Governments are keeping Hindu temples under their control.
Ms Pratiksha Korgaokar of Ranaragini branch of HJS said the case of physical abuse of girls in the hostel of Bethel Gospel Charitable Trust, in the church premises in Navi Mumbai came to limelight recently. The Union Government should appoint an inquiry committee to conduct an inquiry of not only the shelter home of this church, but that of all the church controlled shelter homes in India. Ms Pratiksha further stated that Ranaragini demands that the Government should withdraw the permission of all the shelter homes where malpractices are going on.