CMI orphans live in uncertainty

Smelly toilets, food infested with flies, filthy drains inches away from its entrance and over and above all, the stinking haathbhattis (liquor dens) around its periphery form the immediate environs of the Central Mission of India Trust (CMI), an orphanage run by Sister Mala Naidu, in Dahisar (E).

Owing to its unhealthy conditions, the Department of Woman and Child Welfare, Government of Maharashtra, ordered a close down on November 21.

Another charge against the orphanage was that it was too small to accommodate the 61 children (between 10-14 years) it has housed.

However, unavailability of alternate accommodation has forced them to stay put. Yet, despite its noble intentions, this is far from an ideal home for the orphans.

Naidu blamed the state government for not co-operating with her in improving the orphanage. She also claims that government pressure in the last week has caused her a lot of trauma, and hospitalisation a few days back due to chest pain.

“We started the home with four zhuggis. Owing to space crunch in late the 80s, I approached the government to give us a plot in Gorai. The request was turned down, as Gorai was branded a `no development zone’," says Naidu. “If Gorai was a no development zone, from where did all the residential colonies come up?”

Ravi, a social worker at the orphanage admitted that at any given day atleast ten children from the orphanage suffer from viral infections.“We are looking for a bigger place at Mumbra, but are yet unsure if we will be able to acquire it,” said a staffer.

In event of forceful eviction by the authorities, Naidu has threatened to take a morcha of the children to Mantralaya and seek justice from Chief Minister Manohar Joshi.

I F Thekkekera, Secretary, Woman and Child Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, states that the orphanage is illegal. “If any one wishes to open a children’s home, he or she has to apply to the government for a licence under the Women and Children Institution Licensing Act.

"The CMI has no such permission. They have even acquired water and electricity illegally,” Thekkekera told Express Newsline. Also, senior officials of the department state, "According to section nine of the Juvenile Justice Act, every child in a home must have an area of 40 square feet to himself. Here all the children are dumped in a total of about 500 square feet, thereby forcing them to live in inhuman conditions."