Shampura, once called Sion-pura, is about eight kilometres from Sagar. It rings a bell for all those who know the history of orphanages in this part of the country. It is intrinsically linked to a Capuchin priest, Rev Fr. Raphael Mecchi of Livorno, from the Tuscany area of Italy. 

Born in 1827, he came to India at age 22. He was posted as a chaplain at the cantonment in Sagar. He found a child dying on the road. He picked him up and nursed him back to good health. He decided to devote the rest of his life to taking care of orphan children.

The government was more than willing to help him. It allotted him a large plot of land about five miles away from the cantonment. The land was sprawling but it was wild and deserted. There was no approach road. Even today, it is only a kachha road that leads to Shampura from the National Highway that links Delhi with Kanyakumari.

The priest went there and set up an orphanage, the first in the region.  This was in 1872. Over the years, the number of children increased. Sevadham at Shampura became the natural destination for children who lost their parents or were born with disabilities. He not only looked after them but also provided them with a good education.

It was Fr Raphael Mecchi who set up the Cathedral Church at Sagar in 1890. It was named after the archangel, St. Raphael. The Cathedral was rebuilt and dedicated to St. Therese of Lisieux when the diocese was given to the Syro-Malabar rite.

When Fr Raphael died in 1894 at age 76, he was buried at the Christian cemetery at Sagar. Later, his remains were taken to Shampura and buried at the church there.

Sevadham proved to be an oasis in the desert of childcare. The school for which Fr Raphael had sowed the seeds is named after St. Francis. It has educated generations of young men and women who have served or are serving in various walks of life.

Thousands of orphans who were taken care of at Sevadham are today settled all over the world, not just India. They would be eternally grateful to the Capuchin priest and his successors who took upon themselves the job of looking after the orphans because they saw in them the mirror image of their God.

Ordinarily, the government should have extended all its support to Sevadham. After all, it was doing what a welfare state should have done on its own. Far from that, it is being hounded by those in power.

When I visited Sevadham on June 8, the priests, nuns and children were yet to recover from the shock inflicted on them by the chief of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Mr Priyank Kanoongo, his state counterpart Ms Nivedita Sharma, her colleague Mr Omkar Singh and others when they “raided” the premises exactly a month earlier.

Some of the sisters know Mr Kanoongo’s wife who works in a Christian school. They also know his relatives who all use their traditional surname, unlike the chairperson. But no such consideration was shown by him and his team who treated them indiscriminately.

True, the NCPCR is a quasi-judicial authority. It was set up in 2007 under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, which defines it as a quasi-judicial body. 

It has the power to investigate and adjudicate complaints related to child rights violations, as well as to issue orders and recommendations to address such violations. However, its decisions are not binding like those of a court of law, though they do carry significant weight and are often followed by the concerned parties.

Mr Kanoongo believes in punching above his weight. A few years ago, he had ordered the closure of all the children’s homes in the country on the specious plea that the children should remain with their parents.

As mentioned, it was a raid, not an inspection. They tried to ridicule the priests and nuns. They had caught some fish from a tank on the campus. The fish was kept in the freezer for consumption later. Mr Kanoongo may be a vegetarian and he may not know how fish and meat are preserved. 

India is one of the world’s largest exporters of beef, a business controlled mostly by non-Muslims. They are exported in deep freezers. But at Shampura, it was a subject of ridicule for the raiders. By the way, God knows under what authority, they checked the refrigerator and its contents.

The raiders seized half a bottle of wine kept there. I wish Mr Kanoongo had visited a church for he would have known that a tiny piece of bread dipped in wine is given as a holy sacrament. In some other churches, a few drops of wine is given in a small vessel. Churches have the licence to keep wine in a limited quantity for sacramental use.

Once the late Devilal made a comment on the Christian practice of serving wine. I wrote a column in the Indian Express, where I wrote that if Jesus had taken birth in Kerala, tapioca and coconut water would have been served, instead of wine and bread. By the way, India has been emerging as a major wine producer.

Mr Kanoongo and Co also seized some bottles of ginger wine as if it was as strong as Hercules Rum. For his information, ginger wine has no narcotic value. It is good for indigestion, if it is taken in a small quantity. If it is taken in a large quantity, the drinker will have a burning sensation in his stomach with no effect on his “equilibrium”. 

In other words, it was not liquor. Had they sat quietly, talked to Fr Sinto Varghese Maliekal, who is the in-charge of Sevadham, they would have realised that the bottles of plain water they took were H2O, not Vodka, as they seemed to believe. Mr Kanoongo should have understood that Sevadham was set up at least 140 years before the NCPCR was conceived by the UPA government.

Had he discussed with Fr Maliekal and his colleagues, he would have realised how the state of Madhya Pradesh has been trying to throttle the orphanage. True, it is not proper to use the word orphanage because the Home comes under the Child Welfare Committee of the district concerned. It is governed by the Juvenile Justice Act.

As president and, later, secretary and chief executive of a large New Delhi-based NGO, I have run a children’s home. We found that a lot of children were loitering in the railway station area. We wanted to provide them with an education. We rented a building near the railway station.

After a lot of effort, we bought a plot of land and built a home for the children. Then we were told to register the home with the government. Now, for all practical purposes, it is the government which runs the home, though the society is legally responsible for looking after the children till they reach the age of 18.

In that capacity I have visited many children’s homes in North India. I know for sure that Sevadham has the best infrastructural facilities. I visited the prayer room where the religious texts of all major religions are kept. There are quotations on the wall which sum up the essence of each religion.

It is now more than three years since the registration of Sevadham expired. It is not because the authorities did not apply in time. The authorities concerned have been sitting on the file. The Child Welfare Committee is supposed to send children to Sevadham.

They have stopped doing that. The purpose is very clear. They want to choke the Home so that it dies on its own. The number of children has dropped to eight boys and eight girls. After a couple of years, the children who are in Class X and XII will move out of Sevadham, leaving only a few there.

The likes of Nivedita Sharma and Omkar Singh visualise a situation when the Sevadham Home will itself become an Orphan. Rev Fr. Raphael Mecchi of Livorno would have turned in his grave when Mr Kanoongo and Co created the hullabaloo in the name of an inspection.

As usual, the chairperson addressed a Press conference where he made baseless allegations. If he has a little conscience, he should explain under what authority he cut the cables that recorded the video. Similarly, the mobile phones of Sevadham were taken away. They were returned after formatting them.

They lost all the data they preserved on the phones. And two priests, Fr Joshy and Fr Navin, who tried to record on their mobile phones Mr Kanoongo and his team taking the law into their own hands were arrested on his order. The fact is that he has no authority to ask the police to arrest them. Worse, the priests were beaten up. They are now on bail facing charges that they tried to prevent government officials from discharging their duty.

The inspection was nothing more than an intimidating raid that has left many innocent children traumatised and scared. The CPCR is supposed to protect the rights and welfare of children, not to use its authority to harass and intimidate innocent citizens. They are scared whether the records they have taken away will ever be returned.

I wish Mr Kanoongo had visited the other facilities at Sevadham, instead of creating an unnecessary ruckus there. I visited Anand Bhavan where mentally challenged children are kept and looked after. I also visited Ashray Bhavan, a home for the disabled.

One of the points that he made to the Press was that Sevadham was keeping children who have completed 18 years of age. I met a young woman, who is mentally challenged. She looks double her age. Her mother was discarded by her husband. She had nowhere to go. She is also with her daughter. Where will they be sent?

I met a bright, young girl. She passed the 12th board examination with first class grade. She is unable to walk. She needs constant care. Worse, she needs a serious operation. She has a beautiful voice. She does not have any relatives. Where will she be sent?

I was introduced to Monica, who came to Ashray Bhavan when she weighed just 5 kg. It is a challenge for her caregivers to feed her and take care of her needs. However, she is the apple of the eye of not only the sisters but also of other disabled children.

I was happy to meet a youth, who could not study because he cannot write. He cannot hold a pen and write. He has nowhere to go. He told me that his ambition is to make a living by making and selling samosa. I do not know whether he would ever be able to fulfil his ambition.

The moment he mentioned samosa, all the children smiled. The sisters revealed the secret of their smile. “Samosa is their favourite snack. We try to provide them samosas as often as possible”. For once I felt bad that I had not brought some samosas from Sagar because it was available where I stayed for the night.

For want of time I could not visit the hostel for students of St. Francis School. It is not my contention that everything is spick and span at Sevadham. There may be drawbacks. Inspections should help the NCPCR to improve the amenities available to the children.

The commission should ask itself why no children are sent to Sevadham and why no funds are also given. Is it not part of a grand strategy to close down the institution and take over the land which was, reportedly, given on lease to run an orphanage? 

How I wish the NCPCR chief had realised that “the real dirt is not outside, but inside, in our hearts. We can wash all stains with water. The only one we can't remove is the grudge and the bad intentions sticking to our hearts”.

Concluded

ajphilip@gmail.com