Trauma over, Manipuri children head back home

Trauma over, Manipuri children head back home

THE 76 Manipuri and Assamese children, rescued from Bethesda Blessing Home in Kanyakumari district on January 23, began their return journey on Sunday evening from Tirunelveli.
After producing them before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Tirunelveli, the 52 Manipuri and 24 Assamesse children were handed over to Saranaalayam Reception Home attached to the Child Welfare Committee in Tirunelveli. The children have been staying at Saranaalayam for the last three weeks.
As per the schedule, the children were to leave by Ananthapuri Express from Tirunelveli but due to some trouble in connecting a separate coach from Tirunelveli, the children went by two buses to Madurai.
Speaking from Madurai, the Saranaalayam director, Father S Joseph Johnson, said that the children would reach Chennai on Monday morning and would board the Guwahati Express from Chennai Egmore station on Monday night and would reach Guwahati on Thursday evening. After handing over the Assamese children to that State CWC, the Manipur CWC team would take the Manipuri children to their home State. A police team from Tirunelveli, headed by sub-inspector Abraham and a Assam CID police team led by Inspector P Bordoloi escorted the children. Two Saranaalayam workers and social defence staff accompanied the children.


Chennai: Tamil Nadu and Christian Child Trafficking
Feb 3 2010 | Views 55 | Comments (2) | Report Abuse
Tags: christian terrorism
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Reading a news report on Haiti’s children being abducted was bad enough but this is worse. Christianism’s proselytizing ways and converting people when they are most vulnerable and needy is even worse than terrorism. Where are the christian padres, who come out of burrows when riots take place and plead victimhood, when you need them?

Child traffickers from North-East set up base in Tamil Nadu
Arun Ram, TNN, 26 January 2010, 03:58am IST

CHENNAI: Hundreds of children from the northeastern states are being trafficked by well-networked groups, who have found a safe haven in Tamil Nadu. The rescue of 76 malnourished children, from Manipur and Assam, from a home at Kuzhithurai in Kanyakumari district this week is only the tip of a vast network, which receives crores of rupees from churches and agencies abroad by showing a large number of children under their “care”. ( Watch Video )
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/5502040.cms

Children from Manipur, especially those belonging to the Kuki tribe, are targeted by traffickers masquerading as evangelists and missionaries as people in the insurgency-hit areas are willing to send off their children if they are promised a good education. While 1,096 children’s homes, housing 3.5 lakh children, are registered in the state, almost an equal number operate without registration, evading government scrutiny.

The children aged six to 15 are kept in pathetic conditions and are often made to do jobs like carpentry, cooking and laundry. There have even been cases of children dying under suspicious circumstances and some being molested and abused. “Hundreds of children are brought from the northeastern states to Tamil Nadu, where they are virtually apportioned among what pass off as children’s homes. A large number of these homes are not registered with any government department. We have our hands full,” says P Manorama, chairperson, Child Welfare Committee, Chennai.

Incidentally, a majority of homes charged with trafficking are run by missionaries or evangelical societies. “These institutions exploit religion to make money. With many of them not registered with the government, the homes escape scrutiny,” says Vidya Reddy of Tulir, Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.

In 2005, Richard (11), a Manipuri inmate of ‘New Life Centre’ in Tirunelveli, died, reportedly of drowning. The following year, another boy, Pilgrim Nicobar (7), was found dead in a pond in the same home. The home’s licence was cancelled, but the investigations into the deaths yielded virtually nothing. In 2005, three girls of a children’s home in Chennai, including two from Manipur, complained that they had been molested. Police questioned the director, but there has been no follow-up.