| Missionaries of Charity deny allegations of abusing children in India |
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CALCUTTA, India (CNS) -- The Missionaries of Charity denied allegations that they abused residents at a home for children in India. Their denial follows reports that British television reporter Donal MacIntyre, posing as a volunteer, secretly filmed children being tied to cots at the nuns' "Daya Dan," or Gift of Mercy, home for children in Calcutta, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. MacIntyre allegedly found children with their hands tied during mealtimes and tied at night to their cots with pieces of cloth. The children reportedly are ages six months to 12 years. Sister Paula Marie, superior of the home, told UCA News that the allegations come from people who look at the situation "very much from the outside, not understanding the relationship" between the children and their caregivers. "We don't abuse children," she said. "What we do is for the good of the child, for training or safety, and the use of restrictions has been limited."
She said that nuns had to restrain some disabled children for limited periods "so they do not harm themselves." She also said children with special needs are sometimes tied when they are spoon-fed to keep them from waving their hands. In a statement, Britain's Five News said it began investigating the home after hearing complaints from international aid workers, reported Reuters, a British news agency. "I was truly shocked by what I found at the Daya Dan center. There are strategies for looking after disabled children that minimize stressful situations, and, as a result of poor training and lack of resources, staff are resorting to inhumane practices such as tying children up," MacIntyre said. The Missionaries of Charity, in a July 30 statement released from its motherhouse in Calcutta, said, "Physical restraints are used only when absolutely necessary for the safety of the child and for educational purposes for limited periods of time." "We value constructive criticism and admit that there is always room for improvement," the statement said. However, the congregation said that only those who work "day in and day out" with the "59 very special children" in the home can "really know both the demands to total self-forgetfulness as well as the joy at the (slightest) response and improvement in these children." Father C.M. Paul, a Salesian linked to the congregation for three decades, finds such children being tied "nothing to be perturbed about." The Indian situation does "not fit requirements of normal practice in the West," he told UCA News in an e-mail. "Only people with heart and who work for such children" understand what methods must be used to feed the children, he said. The nuns' statement indirectly acknowledged the lack of modern amenities at their home for the care of disabled children. "Our homes continue to be simple, providing immediate and effective service to the poorest of the poor as long as they have no one to help them," it said. U.S.-born Sister Paula Marie said she was "disturbed by some things" she had seen when she first came to Missionaries of Charity houses as a volunteer. "As I stayed on, I fell in love with the work the sisters were doing, and have developed a great respect for them and a better realization of their ways," she said. The home was set up in 1998, a year after the death of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who founded the order in 1950. 8/4/2005 |
