Missionaries lock horns with govt over ideology, oppose new adoption rules

Mother Teresa's Missionaries Of Charity has opposed the new adoption guidelines that allow single parents to adopt.
Missionaries lock horns with govt over ideology, oppose new adoption rules
Missionaries lock horns with govt over ideology, oppose new adoption rules
Written by:

The government has said that children will be moved out of the institutions run by the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation founded by Mother Teresa, if the latter does not comply with its the rules, reported The Times of India.

The move comes after the Charity opposed the new adoption guidelines of the government that allow single parents to adopt. The Charity has even sought derecognition for 13 of its 16 homes.

However, the government is keen to hold discussions with members of the Charity and convince them to follow the guidelines, states the report.

"We will try and persuade them because they are valuable people and have experience. But if they do not listen then those children will have to be shifted to other places," Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had earlier said.

TOI further states, "While separated or divorced parents were eligible to adopt earlier as well, the new guidelines have made registration of prospective parents with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) mandatory and applications can be tracked online. The issue came to the fore after CARA found two cases of rejection by the Missionaries because of the prospective parents' single status."

"Adoptions can only happen through a registered children's home. If they refuse to be licensed according to the rules of land, we will be left with no choice but to transfer children out o another registered agency to facilitate the adoptions,'' CARA chairperson Stuti Kacker told the newspaper.

The missionaries reportedly have ideological issues with the government's adoption policy.

Lalita Panicker in an analysis for the Hindustan Times writes that authorities at the Charity "have expressed fears that the single person who adopts a child may turn out to be gay or lesbian, which in their eyes poses a security and moral risk to the child."

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com