Chitwan, April 3

It has been found that most of the child homes set up and operated with the support of various foreign donors in Chitwan are acting as shelters hat preach Christianity to young minds.

This came to light during monitoring of these establishments by the district children welfare committee and district women and children office, Chitwan, recently.

According to women and children office Chief Shanta Kumari Poudel, children are being taught Christianity at these facilities.

“We visited the homes to learn about their condition and were surprised to see the kids being taught to pray to Jesus before and after they took meals at 90 per cent of such homes. Not only that, they were also found to be preaching other things of the religion to the young minds,” recounted Poudel.

According to data, the district has 31 child homes operating, where some 1,046 kids, including 525 girls are taking shelter. Of them, Bharatpur Municipality has the biggest number of such homes - 16, followed by Ratnanagar municipality which has 10 such homes. Similarly, Narayani, Rapti and Khairahani municipalities have three,

one and one such facilities respectively.

Interestingly, despite the state provision that allows only orphans to be taken in by children’s homes if there is no one in their families to look after them, a considerable number of children at the establishments are not orphans. They are apparently there due to the poor economic condition of the concerned families, who opt to give away their children to such establishments to avoid the financial burden for their upkeep.

Poudel further rued the malpractice in the name of children’s home.

“Though the law of the land has clearly laid down the provisions, there is a tendency among guardians to give priority to the immediate burden or whatever over the overall future of the kids, which is unfortunate,” she said, also accusing the child homes of taking advantage of the poverty of the concerned guardians and trying to secure more donation by registering more children with them.

Chief District Officer Binod Prakash Singh described the reported practice as illegal. “No one can force anyone to change their religion, it is clearly written in the statute. If found doing so, he or she will be subject to punishment,” he said.