Shivraj Chouhan demands action after 26 girls go missing from the Bhopal Children’s Home; NCPCR chairman accuses ‘conversion’
The girls were forced to practice Christianity while being housed in the unlawful children’s home, according to NCPCR chairman Priyank Kanoongo.
The previous chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, asked the Mohan Yadav government to step in on Saturday about the disappearance of 26 girls from an illegal children’s home in the state capital of Bhopal.
“The case of the disappearance of 26 girls from a children’s home operating without permission in I’ve learned about the Parwalia police station location in Bhopal,” Chouhan wrote in an article for X.
“Considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the matter, I urge the government to take cognisance and take immediate action,” the member of parliament added.
According to ANI, a first information report (FIR) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, filed at the Parwaliya Sadak Police Station in Bhopal, lists Anil Methew, the children’s home manager, as an accused party.
The FIR states that 26 out of the 68 girls enrolled at the facility between the ages of 6 and 18 have been reported missing. The home’s lack of a license and noncompliance with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 were also mentioned.
Regarding the case, Priyank Kanoongo, the chairman of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), has written to the chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh.
Kanoongo claimed that the kids housed in this unauthorized shelter home are coerced into following Christianity in a post on social networking platform X
कल मध्यप्रदेश की राजधानी भोपाल के तारासेवनिया में राज्य बाल आयोग अध्यक्ष व सदस्यों के साथ संयुक्त रूप से एक मिशनरी द्वारा संचालित अवैध बाल गृह का निरीक्षण किया।
यहाँ की संचालक NGO हाल तक सरकारी एजेन्सी की तरह चाइल्ड लाइन पार्ट्नर के रूप में कार्यरत रही है,एवं इसने सरकारी… pic.twitter.com/yVlWt04c90— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) January 5, 2024
Together with the state children’s commission chair and other members, I conducted an inspection of an unlawful children’s home operated by missionaries. Up until recently, the coordinating NGO operated as a government agency’s child line partner. The house where the kids are being housed is operating without a license. The bulk of the kids, who range in age from six to eighteen, are Hindus, Kanoongo said.
The cops had a tough time filing a formal complaint. Sadly, the NCPCR head said, “officials from Madhya Pradesh’s women and child welfare department wish to use these NGOs to run a child hotline on a contract basis.