A key figure in campaigns to ban smacking has been jailed for sexually abusing a child in the 1960s.

Peter Newell, a former Chair of the Children are Unbeatable Alliance, admitted to five indecent and serious sexual assaults on a twelve-year-old boy.

The Charity Commission says it was made aware of allegations against Newell in 2016 but it has not been reported in the press until recently, amidst wider reports of sexual abuse at a number of household name charities.

Leading voice

Newell, 77, was sentenced last month at Blackfriars Crown Court and has been jailed for six years and eight months.

SHARE TWEET SHARE EMAIL

Shocking allegation against an NGO named St. Joseph’s Hospice have emerged, which include beating sick inmates and using their dead bodies for harvesting bones. Some reports have also alleged that it is also involved in harvesting organs of its inmates and selling it to other countries.

The hospice, which calls itself a ‘Home for Dying Destitute’, was founded by Father R. V. Thomas in 2011. The same Christian pastor is also running similar hospices in Dindigul and Paleshwaram. A hospice is a Christian equivalent of an Ashram where sick and destitute are supposed to be taken care of.

An article about an unauthorised vault being used to cremate the dead had appeared in The Hindu newspaper on 3rd February. However, this article had not included details of treatment meted out to inmates and allegations of bone harvesting by locals.

Now a Tamil channel named Thanthi TV has come up with a ground report, which has brought to light the allegations of locals against the the NGO.

Not everyone was happy about the Fab Four’s visit to India 50 years ago.

Despite the adulation and enthusiasm of the growing band of Beatles fans in India, their trip to Rishikesh was not without its controversies. There were many people in the country who were openly hostile to both Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi] and the arrival of the rock band and other celebrities from the West in his ashram. In the Lok Sabha, the elected Lower House of the Indian Parliament, the Opposition went up in arms alleging that the yogi was in cahoots with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that many of his guests from abroad were actually foreign spies. The charge was led by communist members of Parliament who formed a sizeable block in the Opposition benches and were supported by the socialists who too felt that something fishy was happening in Rishikesh.

‘Rishikesh, the Hotbed of Espionage,’ the front-page headline of the Free Press Journal newspaper had screamed the next morning. ‘Rishikesh has become the hotbed of espionage thronged by the Beatles yearning for Nirvana and intelligence agents nibbling at India’s security, Left Communist member K. Anirudhan complained in the Lok Sabha today,’ read the dramatic first paragraph of the report.

The veteran parliamentarian belonging to the Marxist Communist Party had painted an alarming picture in his lengthy supplementary question in the House. ‘The Beatles and hippies have set up their own colony in Rishikesh. And a foreign secret service boss is sitting at the feet of the yogi and living in the inner camp of the ashram ostensibly seeking nirvana,’ he had shrieked as his leftist and socialist colleagues on the Opposition benches thumped their tables.

Anirudhan had also expressed outrage at the luxurious quarters of the Beatles inside the ashram. ‘The huts built there are extremely comfortable. In fact, in one place palaces have been constructed,’ revealed the MP. He had also been very critical of the local Uttar Pradesh government gifting land to the Maharishi for an airstrip under pressure from powerful central leaders, and alleged that a special aircraft had been arranged for him by a suspicious foreign association.

Washington, DC

The case of Ms. Kairi Shepherd has been extensively reported in media in recent days. In response to questions, the spokesman of the Embassy said the following today (25 May, 2012):-

“The Embassy has seen reports concerning Kairi Shepherd, and has requested the US authorities for facts on this matter. All the information available to us on this case indicates that it has a clearly humanitarian dimension, that cannot be ignored. As reports indicate, Kairi Shepherd was brought to the United States after adoption, as a baby, and has known no other home. Her case deserves to be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion, keeping in mind the humanitarian dimension and tenets of universally accepted human rights.”

”

Dusk at the Dawn : A Study of Unwed Mother in Odisha

Ms. Sunita Behera, Dr. Ranjita Behera

Women’s Studies Reserarch Center, Berhampur University, Berhampur

*Corresponding Author E-mail:  

To support the Government of Armenia in advancing its human rights agenda and meeting the commitments vis-à-vis International Human Rights Instruments, the project aims to enhance human rights protection in the country, through formulation and implementation of inclusive policies, monitoring mechanisms and strengthened implementation capacity of the key national actors.

The Project is aligned with the targets of the Human Rights (HR) Budget Support Programme of the European Union (EU) and focuses on such priority areas as human rights monitoring and evaluation, prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, anti-discrimination, gender - based violence and child rights.

The project is funded by the EU and is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Actions in Brief

The Project actions are designed to:

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) The Supreme Court today pulled up the Kerala government for not ensuring adequate facilities to children living in orphanages and child care institutions there as mandated under the law.

The court said that according to the affidavit filed by the states chief secretary, several such institutions have stated that they cannot provide proper infrastructure to children living there.

"If these institutions are saying that they cannot provide proper infrastructure, food, clothes to the children, then is it okay for you? You are saying the same to us. What is this?" a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the counsel representing Kerala.

The bench said it would hear the state on the issue and "if we find that you are mistreating the children, we will see".

It also termed it as "amazing" that the state was unable to provide proper facilities to children living in orphanages and child care institutions.

“You can define how strong a democracy is by how its government treats its child. I don’t mean children. I mean the child of the state.” – Lemn Sissay (Adoptee; fostered)

As we wrap up the Series today, I would like to speak to some points briefly.

Having studied adoption in many climes, it remains to be said that absolutely nothing can be done for the child of the state, without the government.

One major complaint that almost everyone has had with the adoption process has been the time it takes from the expression of interest to the actual adoption. The anticipation of waiting. It’s not a Nigerian problem, it’s a universal one. From Australia, to the United Kingdom, it takes time to adopt, period. Like we noted earlier in the Series, each state legislates over adoption. Adoption is very different in each jurisdiction and it can be very messy and overwhelming for some people. In Nigeria, the government generally permits only children who have been abandoned and with no identifiable family members to take them in, to be adopted. In most developed countries, adoption is permitted even when family members may still be living, but only when they are no longer in a position to take care of them. But the truth is the same everywhere. The waiting list for younger children, most especially babies is longer than those for toddlers or young children. Like last season’s fashion, the longer they have been in the homes, the less likely they are to be adopted.

The government has always sought to protect the interest of children. Through the years, we have seen such tools as Family Planning, the fight against child abuse and trafficking and even the re-introduction of free education that have helped improve the lot of children. For the child of the state, however, a lot has been left undone. The passage of the Child Rights Act, 2003 has largely helped in this direction but how much? Abandoned children are still at the mercy of evil people who use them to throw pity parties and get grants form unsuspecting organizations. These children are being sold to willing couples; people who have tired of the long drawn out adoption process and will do anything to get a child. They are also trafficked for various heart breaking activities.

The call reference is EuropeAid/158557/DH/ACT/Multi.

Guidelines and all the relevant documents can be found here.

The deadline for the submission of concept notes is 27/03/2018.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to ensure better outcomes for children by ensuring better implementation of the UN's Guidelines for the alternative care of children in their entirety, so that children enjoy equal chances to reach their full potential in societies.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to provide quality care for children through the following priorities:

A hospital in textile town Ichalkaranji has emerged as a suspected hub for ‘baby trade’, where a homeopath and his wife allegedly arranged illegal adoptions.

In a matter of months, two couples on a desperate quest for parenthood experienced the joy of bringing home an unwanted baby and the shock of seeing the child being taken away by authorities investigating trafficking and illegal adoptions.

This traumatic chapter for the Chahandes and the Sawais, from Chandrapur and Nerul, began with a phone call and a visit to the maternity hospital run by homeopath Dr Arun Patil in Ichalkaranji, a laid-back textile town about 382 km from Mumbai. It has tainted their dream of starting a family, and police and government officials suspect Dr Patil arranged, for a substantial fee, informal and illegal adoptions for many childless couples, who are probably not even aware they have committed a crime.

Dr Patil, his wife and the Chahandes, Manoj and Prerna, were arrested last week and face serious charges. The Sawais, Amol and Aarti, were briefly detained. They all deny wrongdoing.

Dr Patil, Mirror has learned, oversaw around 70 deliveries a month at his hospital, an unusually high number for a place like Ichalkaranji, but didn’t maintain a record in every case. Officials are reportedly exploring the line of inquiry that he built a network with unwed mothers and other women, including victims of sexual assault, not in a position to raise their children because of social and financial challenges. He allegedly advised them to sell the babies to couples eager to adopt one.