| Why disabled children were tied up by Teresa staff |
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NEW DELHI: Mother Teresa's charity said yesterday it tied up disabled children at one of its homes in India for their "safety" and for "educational purposes" after a British documentary highlighted the practice. "Physical restraints are used only when absolute necessary for the safety of the child and for educational purposes for limited periods of time," said Sister Christie, spokeswoman for the Missionaries of Charity, the worldwide Roman Catholic order founded by Mother Teresa. She issued the statement after British television reporter Donal MacIntyre said he clandestinely filmed many of the 59 children at the Daya Dan home in Kolkata tied by their ankles to their beds at night. The Five News reporter said he also shot footage of the children being restrained as they were fed. The children were aged between six months and 12 years. Britain's Five News said the findings of the programme, amounted to "serious shortcomings" at the care institution founded in 1998, a year after Mother Teresa's death. MacIntyre was quoted by Indian media reports as saying that what he filmed at Daya Dan was as "unacceptable in Kolkata" as it would be in Britain. The "Missionaries of Charity receive millions and millions of pounds in donations and they must do better," he was quoted as saying.
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