How Could You? Hall of Shame-India-Ujjwal Niketan Orphanage

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Haryana, India, “a court has denied measures taken by a female member of a Catholic Secular Institute to avoid jail over allegations of child cruelty that are part of an ongoing scandal involving two childcare homes she managed in northern India.

Lily Baretto, a member of the Maids of the Poor institute, had filed for “anticipatory bail” which under Indian law would have allowed her not to be jailed over allegations made by two teenage girls.

A Secular Institute allows laypeople to associate and live a consecrated life, retaining their lay status and working and leading a secular way of life. The members of the institute get together for retreats and spiritual seminars.

The girls said that they were mistreated in Baretto’s Ujjwal Niketan childcare center in the Gurgaon district of the state of Haryana. The two — aged 13 and 17 — in July filed a complaint with the police that they were harassed and made to do menial jobs during their stay at Ujjwal Niketan.

The district court in Gurgaon rejected Baretto’s anticipatory bail application July 29 after hearing the two girls’ testimonies. This means if Baretto is arrested she will be jailed until the courts issue a verdict on her case.

Sandeep Khirwar, commissioner of police in Gurgaon, said the case remains under investigation.

The allegations made by the two girls are part of broader allegations involving the child center which opened in 1994 with 14 children.

The trouble started when the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) held successive raids on the childcare home in Gurgaon past November. Investigators found children living in poor conditions in the center.

From those investigations, charges have been made against Baretto that include child trafficking and breaking adoption laws by giving two girls, aged 5 and 7, to a couple in Mangalore, southern India last year without consulting the CWC.

The center was subsequently shutdown in February and the 20 children it housed were moved to other orphanages.

The charges of child trafficking and illegal adoption against Baretto are still under investigation.

Shakuntala Dhull, CWC chairperson, wrote to the Gurgaon deputy commissioner in January stating that “the conduct of the home in connection with the two minor girls has raised suspicion of child trafficking or the use of children for sexual exploitation as they did not provide any document about who adopted the children.”

Baretto’s driver was also arrested in July for allegedly raping a girl at the home several times. The victim complained to the CWC in March about the sexual assault.

Meanwhile, officials have ordered the shutdown of another childcare home run by Baretto in another village in Gurgaon after a six-member team visited it last month and found irregularities in the center’s records.

Following this, complaints of forgery and irregularities were filed against Baretto. Officials said the children housed in that center are now in other orphanages.

 

‘Nothing to do with the institute’

Lily Fernandes, director of the Maids of the Poor institute, told ucanews.com that Baretto was running her own NGO and “it had nothing to do with the institute.”

Fernandes said Baretto wanted to “give her life for the poor. She mentioned that to us and that is what she has been doing.”

Fernandes said she cannot comment on the charges as she was “doing it independently. We are not in touch with her.”

Church officials refused to comment on the case and said that they are unaware of its details.

Baretto could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

The Maids of the Poor institute was established in 1947 in the diocese of Lucknow in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It currently has 95 members across India and has members in countries such as Ethiopia, Italy and the UK.”

Childcare scandal widens in India

[UCA News 8/3/17 by Ritu Sharma]

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