Children of a State Juvenile Observation Home located in Lucknow, UP have complained to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) that the NGO in charge of providing education at the home is forcing Christianity upon them and forcing them to convert. A visit by the SCPCR team learnt this and non-compliance of other protocols during a visit to the juvenile home, reports Hindi daily Amar Ujala.
The commission was analysing the works of juvenile homes across 18 mandals (blocks) in the state of Uttar Pradesh. For analysing the juvenile homes in Lucknow mandal, the officials reached this particular one at Mohan Road, where they found many irregularities.
The most shocking one was that a man named Vipul from an organisation called Khidmat, that was entrusted with providing education to the children residing at the home, was teaching them the lessons of Christianity. He told the children that their God is dead, now Jesus is their only God and they all must pray to him.
The head of the commission, Dr. Vishesh Gupta told reporters that Vipul was distributing reading material and Christian prayer books to the children and forcing them to pray. There was an attempt to convert the religion of children to Christianity, he admitted.
The commission found many other irregularities at that place. Insecticides were found kept along with food material in the store room. Everyday materials bought were shown more than their actual price. Apart from this, children living there also complained about being beaten with plastic rods by the staff members named Shankar dada, Tiwari and Awasthi.
The children were not being provided with proper legal help. No action had been taken in court for the last one and half years in relation to their cases.
The SCPCR also found fault with the the block administration and said that the Chief secretary and the Chief Minister will be informed about all these irregularities.
(Featured Image Source: Amar Ujala)
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