Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity orphanages to shut down?

Missionaries of Charity, the group started by Mother Teresa, may have to shut down its orphanages due to its non-compliance with adoption guidelines.

Women and Child Fevelopment minister Maneka Gandhi said the charity was not complying with the adoption guidelines – of not putting children up for adoption to single, divorced or separated people -- leaving the government with no option but to derecognise them.

As per the guidelines notified by the WCD ministry in July, adoption rules have become more stringent.

However, the Missionaries of Charity has refused to comply with the provisions related to adoptions by single, separated or divorced people.

“They have cited ideological issues with our adoption guidelines related to giving a child up for adoption to single, unwed mothers. They have their own agenda and now when they have to come under a unified secular agenda, they are refusing it,” Hindustan Times quoted Gandhi as saying.

Gandhi added that the Missionaries of Charity had itself written to the Central Adoption Resource Authority, seeking de-recognition of 13 of its orphanages.

“We are trying and persuading them because they are valuable, good people and have experience. But if they do not follow the central guidelines, we will be left with no option but to derecognise the orphanages run by them and shift the children to other places,” Gandhi added.

Image: Nuns from the Missionaries of Charity take care of abandoned children at one of their orphanages. Photograph: Andrew Biraj/Reuters