Author: Amit Singh
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: December 8, 2009
URL: http://mid-day.com/news/2009/dec/081209-midday-exclusive-converted-girls-rescued.htm
Emotions took centre stage as cops from the
Faridabad police knocked at the gate of Flat No 134, Sector-21, Faridabad
on Monday morning.
The cops were accompanied by two couples,
who had filed a police complaint against a charitable trust, accusing it of
converting their daughters to Christianity.
As the caretaker of the flat, used by the
Comademat Charitable Trust, opened the iron gate, the parents searched the
dim rooms till eight-year-old Anila Paswan alias Mary, emerged from one of
them and ran to her mother, Radha. Behind her came her younger sister, six-year-old
Sony and another girl from the trust, Shivani alias Damaris, whose parents
had also filed a complaint. For the next 15 minutes, the girls held on to
their parents, inconsolable.
In MiD DAY first
On Monday, MiD DAY had reported how the charitable
trust, managed by a couple from Brazil -- Aldemir De Souza and his wife Darlene
-- had allegedly converted 15 girls to Christianity and given them new names.
The parents of three girls said the trust had been avoiding their attempts
to contact their children for a month.
The girls were handed over to the trust by their poor families about a year
ago. In return, the parents were assured the girls would be provided good
education, free food and accommodation.
Suresh Paswan, Anila's father, said, "We
have met our girls after six months. For the last couple of days we were very
tense. My wife has been crying continuously and didn't even eat anything.
Now that we have got our daughters back, we can't stop crying. We can't thank
MiD DAY enough. I will never hand over my children to such a trust again."
When asked if they will address their daughter
as Mary or Anila, Paswan said, "We are Hindus and Anila is her birth
name. We will try to convince her. Till now she was taken to churches, now
we will take her to temples. I am sure both my daughters will soon start following
our customs and tradition."
Cop action
Earlier in the day, Paswan and Pitamber, Shivani's
father, filed a police complaint at the Police Headquarters at Faridabad Sector
12. In their complaint, the parents said the children were tricked and converted
to Christianity. "We were never informed about their change of names
or that they were being taken to churches.
The trust had said we had signed a 20-year-contract
of non-interference in the girls' lives, but we are not aware of any such
document. Now we want our kids back, otherwise they may take them to their
country," said Paswan, in his complaint.
After the girls were reunited with their parents,
the cops escorted them to the nearby police station at Sector 21-D, Faridabad.
Praveen Kumar Mehta, deputy commissioner of
police (NIT), Faridabad Police, said, "I have asked the concerned police
station to look into the case and take action against any person found responsible
for converting the kids."
Happy kids
At the police station, Paswan signed a document
stating he was taking his daughters home. "I had a good life at the trust
but missed my mother. I was too scared to ask them to make me speak to her.
Now I want to stay with my father and mother," said Anila. Her sister
Sony, agreed.
However, Pitambar didn't take Shivani back
with him. "I want Shivani to be well educated. And I can't afford a good
school with my driver's salary. So if the trust promises not to force her
to follow Christianity, I will let her stay here," he said.
"I am happy to have met my father. I
want to study here, but would like to keep meeting him," said Shivani.
When contacted on Sunday, Darlene De Souza said in an email, "We are
out of India for a surgery. We have all the documents and the parents know
everything. We are only in India to help those needy children."
You read it in MiD DAY first
The story so far
According to Suresh Paswan, who works as a
gardener near Gurgaon, the trust had taken in the girls last year.
He said it was about five months ago that he was asked to address Anila as
Mary, and ordered to visit the girls once in six months. He alleged the trust
had shifted the girls from the house where they resided earlier. When this
reporter visited the trust's old office at B-1083, Greenfield Apartments,
Faridabad, it was found the girls had been shifted out a month ago.
MiD DAY also found the trust had enrolled
11 of the 15 girls in its custody in Northland International School, Faridabad.
But the girls were pulled out of the school in October last year. Interestingly,
the trust had submitted to the school an affidavit, a copy of which MiD DAY
has, with a list of 12 girls with 'Christian' names.
Paswan had contacted MiD DAY on Friday evening, reporting that his daughter
had gone missing.