Government orders inspection in all Mother Teresa care homes

The child-care homes run by the Mother Teresa-founded Missionaries of Charity (MoC) have now come under the scrutiny of Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, following a number of illegal adoption cases being lodged against the homes. The issue came into notice when a nun was recently arrested over an alleged adoption racket.

The minister directed all the child-care institutions (CCIs) to be registered and linked to the country's apex adoption body within a month. An official in the Women and Child Development Ministry said that registration of CCIs and their linking with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is mandatory as per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 but some orphanages have challenged the validity of the clause.

The ministry, in a statement, said that Gandhi has ordered all the states to get the child-care homes run by the religious order founded by Mother Teresa organisation inspected immediately following the controversy that was caused due to the illegal adoptions carried out by the MoC in Jharkhand.

Since December last year, approximately 2,300 CCIs have been linked to CARA. Nearly 4,000 more CCIs are still pending for the linkage. The fact that the children in the 2,300 institutions linked to CARA are yet to be brought under an adoption system has become a matter of concern for Maneka Gandhi. In India, currently 2,32,937 children are under the care of CCIs -- both registered and unregistered in India.