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Govt to orphanages: Don't admit under-12 kids from Northeast and Naxal-infested states
Govt crackdown on illegal child trafficking comes in the wake of 23 Manipuri minors being rescued earlier this month
Jeemon Jacob
Thiruvananthapuram
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Photo: Shailendra Pandey
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Kerala government has advised the orphanages in the state not to admit children under 12 from Naxal-infested states and Northeastern states. Social Welfare Department issued an advisory note after the Child Welfare Committee had alerted the government that several groups are trafficking children from Northeastern states to Kerala under the pretext of offering free education and boarding in orphanages in Kerala.
“We have issued guidelines to orphanages and boarding houses in the state not to admit children under 12 from Naxal-infested states as well as Northeastern states. It’s against the existing law and the orphanages should take prior permission from the Child Welfare Committees before admitting such children,” said a senior official in Social Welfare Department.
Kerala government and Child Welfare Committees started crackdown on the illegal child trafficking in the state after Kerala police found 23 Manipuri children, all under 13, staying in a rented house in Vyttila near Kochi. Child Welfare Committee had rescued the children and put them in a charity home. Among the children, one was from Ukhrul district and rest from Imphal East district of Manipur. Police investigations revealed that they were staying at Precious Home in Kottayam.
According to a Child Welfare Committee official in Ernakulam, 13 boys and 10 girls were brought to Kottayam in 2011 by giving false promises to their parents that their children would be given free education and boarding. “We have found that only two children were admitted in the school and others were given only home tuition. We had sent them back to Manipur and now they are with their families,” said the official.
A joint team of representatives of the State Social Welfare Department and officials of Children Welfare Committee (CWC), Imphal East, including member secretary K Pradeepkumar, CWC, Bishnupur and chairperson L Pishak visited Kerala on 11 August and brought back all the 23 children on 18 August.
Managing trustee of Precious Home Dr Kunjumon Chacko told TEHELKA, “A pastor who was studying in a Baptist run theological seminary in Kottayam had brought the children from Manipur. All the children were from poor families. In May 2011, during summer holidays, we had sent them back to Manipur. But the pastor took a house on rent in Kochi and lodged the children there. Police took custody of the children from there.” The rescued children were then lodged in Don Bosco Sneha Bhavan and Pratheksha Bhavan where they have been staying since then.
Father Varghese Pynadath, Director of Don Bosco Sneha Bhavan said that out of the 13 boys, only two had attended school during their stay at Kottayam. “They have not received elementary education and can’t attend Malayalam medium school. But they are very talented and one of the boys had won a bronze medal in the last National Open Judo Championship held at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
This is not the first time children from Manipur have been taken to south Indian states under pretext of education by dubious organisations. However, so far the government has not been able to hold anyone accountable for trafficking. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Police rescued 52 children from an illegal orphanage run by a catholic priest in Kulasekharam near Thuckalay in Tamil Nadu.
Jeemon Jacob is Bureau Chief, South with Tehelka.
jeemonj@gmail.com
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