India: Child trafficking accused, Mother Teresa's homes to be inspected

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On 4 July 2018, the police arrested a nun and an employee in the children's home run by the Missionaries of Charity in Ranchi, capital of the poor state of Jharkhand. REUTERS / Stringer

The Missionaries of Charity organization, founded by Mother Teresa in India, is under investigation for the infant trade. This happened after a couple revealed 10 days ago having to pay to adopt one of the newborns supported by the association. The government has just reacted by asking that all centers of the organization be inspected.

With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sébastien Farcis

1,500 euros. This is the price that an Indian couple had to pay to adopt an infant born in a center of the Missionaries of Charity, in the state of Jharkhand, in the northeast of the country. A sister and an employee confessed to having made the transaction they passed for childbirth expenses.

Four other children were thus sold by these two women workers of the organization founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa. The regional authorities fear that this traffic has been going on for a long time, because in this center, which hosts pregnant and single women, 450 children have been born for 3 years, but only 170 have been registered.

No trace of the remaining 280 babies. It is exactly three years since the Missionaries of Charity stopped providing children for public adoption following a reinforcement of procedures.

The Catholic organization denies the existence of such a trade and asserts that this is a slanderous operation on the part of Hindu groups. The Federal Minister for Women and Children, however, called for an immediate inquiry in all their centers across the country.