I was a pastor at St Mary’s Church in Agra in 1990s. Adjacent to the Church campus is the Home of the Missionaries of Charity (MC) Sisters, Congregation founded by St Teresa of Kolkata. One day the Superior of the Convent came and told me that the inmates of the Convent (aged, orphans, mentally retarded and tiny kids) numbering about 200 had nothing to eat for the day. The Community Sisters with some orphan girls began praying and interceding to God in the Chapel to inspire some generous persons to come and deliver some food items. As soon as they finished their prayers, two persons from the city came simultaneously with a sack of wheat flour and a sack of rice respectively and delivered in the Convent for the inmates. Like this, daily relying upon God’s Providence and generous people, the Sisters manage their homes all over the world.
Last Christmas day in 2021 it was shocking news because Union Home Ministry had refused to renew the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of MC. After much hue and cry by the well-wishers of the Congregation, the FCRA Certification was renewed on January 6, 2022. It is now valid till December 31, 2026. Since the Congregation has no source of income to maintain their numerous homes in India where they serve poorest of the poor, they are compelled to request for foreign aid. Instead of refusing outrightly the renewal of FCRA, the Home Ministry could have taken a better step of helping the Congregation to get it renewed as a token of gratitude for the charitable work done by the nuns for the refugees, homeless victims of floods, epidemics and famine, etc.
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In another instance of rubbing salt into the wound, the MC nuns have been evicted from their Shishu Bhawan in Kanpur Cantonment on January 3. This home for orphaned, destitute and abandoned children was established in June 1968, when the property was purchased from a private entity. For the last 53 years the nuns enjoyed its peaceful possession. This home gave over 1500 babies in adoption. According to a press release issued by the Indian Catholic Forum, the Defence Estates Office (DEO) took the action claiming that Shishu Bhawan was built on lease land and the 90-year lease expired in 2019. “Thereafter the Sisters were trespassers for which they would have to pay a penalty of Rs 1 crore per annum, amounting to Rs 2 crores,” the release said.
The DEO seemed to have been blind to the altruistic services the nuns rendered to all in need. In fear they meekly surrendered before the army authorities and handed over peaceful possession of their home to the DEO on January 3. They surrendered the property probably in the hope that by doing so the existing demand of Rs 2 crores would be waived and that peaceful act would hold them in good stead while re-applying for the renewal of FCRA account.
This selective targeting seems to have the malodour of a communal bias. Is this how the nation repays the true deshbhakts, the dedicated Sisters who serve the poorest of the poor without expecting anything in return? Let us acknowledge their services and honour them.
