Last month, OpIndia reported an exclusive case from the Pune district of Maharashtra where two minor girls were forcefully sent to an orphanage in Daund and were forcefully converted to Christianity. The girls were also forced to clean toilets, were influenced against Hinduism and Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and were beaten, and tortured after their mother’s death in the year 2020.
The Police have taken cognizance of the event and have filed an FIR against the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission and its three Matrons identified as Sakshi Bhalerao, Nisha More, and Vaishali Bhasker for assaulting and torturing the minor girls and converting them to Christianity.
As per the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, all four accused have been booked under sections 354B (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 295A (Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class) and 298 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 11 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. FIR has been filed based on the complaint registered by one of the maternal aunts of the victims.
It has come to the fore that the two minor girls aged 9 and 11 respectively were confined to the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission orphanage which is located in the Daund region of the Pune district. The girls were forced to clean public toilets and were not provided with good food and clothes in the orphanage. They also were forced to take baths in public by the authorities at the orphanage.
The girls were converted to Christianity and baptized by the authorities at the orphanage. They were also forced to go to church on Sundays and were barred from wearing Bindi, bangles, and any Hindu religious symbol in jewellery form on their body. They were brain-fed that “Hindu Gods are dead. They don’t exist. People only apply haldi kumkum on idols unnecessarily.” The girls were also made to believe that Jesus is the only existing God.
The aunt of the girl mentioned in the complaint that she was rarely allowed to meet the girls for 1 and a half years and was not allowed to take them at home for vacations. The aunt of the girls also said that the orphanage refused to hand over the girls to the family saying that they were receiving foreign funds from every girl confined in the orphanage and that they could not afford to lose the girls for money. “However, they kept on trying to convince us that the girls were being taken care of and that they would be sent to foreign countries for education. But we were being cheated,” the complainant said.
How did the two minor girls land in the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission?
The two victim minor girls are from the Shivajinagar area of Pune. They had been staying with their maternal aunt in the Bhavani Peth area after their mother died. The girls’ father shared minimal bond with them given that they were girls. “My sister and her husband shared no relation after these two girls were born. She had been staying with our mother in Pune. And after she died in 2021, I took responsibility for her daughters (two victims of this case),” said the maternal aunt of the two minor girls.
As per the information obtained by OpIndia, the girls had been studying at the Bapusaheb Pawar Prathmik School in Bhavani Peth. Some of the NGOs like the Bharatiya Samajseva Kendra were associated with the school ensuring the welfare of the students. In the year 2021, one of the social workers from the NGO called the aunt of the girls and said that the father of the girls wouldn’t take proper care of the girls. She suggested the woman admit the girls into a good hostel for better education and lifestyle. Despite several refusals from the aunt, the social worker convinced the family and contacted the Bal Kalyan Samiti in Yerwada through which she got the girls admitted to Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission in Daund.
The aunt of the girls was assured that they would be allowed to meet the girls and talk to them over the phone whenever they wanted. The aunt and the other family members of the girls were also assured that all the financial needs of the girls would be taken care of and that they would be sent to foreign for further education. The authorities at the orphanage also reportedly told the family that the marriage expenses of the women would also be taken care of.
Earlier, the aunt of the girls was told that they would be kept at the hostel. However, they were deceptively kept at the orphanage and were confined for almost two years. The girls were not allowed to meet their aunts and were not allowed to communicate with them openly.
What happened to the girls in the orphanage; force-fed ‘wine, bread ‘grape juice’, bread
The two minor girls in their confession to the police said that they were tortured at the orphanage and were not provided with proper clothes, food, and other basic needs. The girls also said that they were made to clean public toilets and wash vessels at the orphanage.
As per the FIR-
- The girls were made to eat white bread and drink Grape Juice (Red wine).
- They were barred from praying to Hindu Gods and Goddesses and were made to believe that “Jesus is the only existent God and all Hindu Gods and Goddesses are dead.”
- The girls were baptized and were forcefully converted to Christianity.
- They were asked to attend Sunday churches and read Christian prayers failing which they would not be provided with proper food.
- The girls were also asked to take an open bath (with no clothes on the body) in front of the public.
- They had also attained infection in their fingers given they were forced to clean toilets using chemicals and acids.
- The girls were frequently tortured, assaulted, and beaten by the Matron Nisha More and Vaishali Bhasker
- They were abused over their low caste
- They were given weird, shapeless haircuts and were made to wear torn clothes deliberately. Photographs of the girls would be shot in such weird attire.
- The two minors were also barred from wearing Bindi and bangles.
- Matron Sakshi Bhalerao would confine the girls into the bathroom for hours if her orders were not followed.
Girls were not allowed to talk to the aunt
The aunt of the girls maintained in the complaint that the girls would not be allowed to talk properly to them. They would be kept watch on continuously when we would visit them. “After the admission of the girls to the hostel (orphanage), me and my two other sisters went to meet the girls. The first time we were treated very nicely. But as I demanded to take the girls home for a few days or vacations they would not allow. Slowly slowly they began keeping us away from the girls. Someone from the orphanage authorities would always be present with the girls ensuring that they don’t reveal the atrocities faced by them,” the aunt said.
The orphanage receives foreign funds for every child confined
On 3rd May 2023, after the mistreatment came to the fore, the father of the girls submitted a letter to the orphanage saying that he wanted his kids back and that he was capable enough to take care of them. Nisha More from the orphanage then rejected the proposal and said that the girls now belonged to the orphanage and that ‘the father now had no relation with the girls.’
Accused Nisha More also replied to the father saying that the orphanage received specific amounts from the foreign countries behind every child in the orphanage and that they would not lose the girls. She further convinced the father saying that the orphanage would take all the financial responsibility of his kids and need not worry about them now.
The girl’s aunt learned about the orphanage’s response and found it scary. She sought help from the Bal Kalyan Samiti to get custody of the kids. However, the authorities at the Samiti, Wasim Sheikh, and other women officials abused her and hurled caste-related abuse. “You low-caste, illiterate people will never change,” the authorities said.
About Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission
The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission in Kedgaon, Daund, was established in the year 1889. As per its official website, the missionary is ‘committed to the empowerment of destitute women and children since 1889’.
It is a Christ-centered home where destitute women and children irrespective of their background are ‘cared for’, transformed, and empowered as per the vision statement mentioned on its website. “We seek, in the Spirit of Christ, to sow seeds of change in the lives of every individual under the care of Mukti Mission, skillfully counselling them to Deal with the issues of life, Initiating varied opportunities of healing and shaping them prayerfully as models of God’s kingdom for the society at large,” the NGO’s mission statement reads.
The basis and operation of the Mission are based on Isaiah 61: 1 & 4 of the Bible which reads, “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”
In the given case, the two minor girls have been forcefully converted by the Missionary.
NCPCR demanded action based on a complaint by IHRC
As reported earlier, the entire incident got exposed when one of the aunts got associated with a Pune-based NGO named the Indian Human Rights Council (IHRC) and local Hindu organizations. The complaint was then sent to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which issued a notice seeking severe action in the case.
The Commission also noted that the details of the two minors had not been uploaded on the Commission’s Bal Swaraj Portal- Covid Care given the reason for the death of the minor’s mother was suspicion of COVID-19.
The girls were finally released by the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission on 11th November 2023 and were safely handed over to the aunts by the local Hindu organizations.
Team OpIndia tried to contact the orphanage for a comment but to no avail.
A complaint has been filed against the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission and its three Matrons identified as Sakshi Bhalerao, Nisha More, and Vaishali Bhasker for assaulting and torturing the minor girls and converting them to Christianity.
All four accused have been booked under sections 354B (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 295A (Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class) and 298 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 11 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 based on the complaint registered by one of the maternal aunts of the victims.
