Kolkata: The Government’s new adoption rule that allows single, divorced and separated people to adopt children, may have compelled the Mother Teresa-founded Missionaries of Charity to voluntarily given up its recognised status to run adoption centres.
“If we were to continue the work set up by Mother Teresa, complying with all the provisions would have been difficult for us,” said a statement issued by the Missionaries of Charity on Saturday. The organization did not say why they feel compelled to do so.
Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi had said on Thursday that the organisation had refused to give children up for adoption to single, divorced and separated people on ideological ground.
Gandhi had said that if Missionaries of Charity refuse to conform to the new adoption guidelines, the government would be left with no option but to de-recognise the adoption centres run by them.
On Saturday, the organization said the decision to discontinue adoption was arrived at by the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata two months back, soon after they received the new “Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children, 2015” issued under a notification from the Union ministry of women and child development.
“Our adoption work, started by Mother Teresa, has been a fruitful and rewarding experience which has changed the lives of thousands of people. We are grateful to God for having allowed us to serve Him through this work for so many years. It is clear to us that it is the will of God to discontinue this work,” the statement issued by the organisation said.
The charity organisation also added, “We trust that God will take care of all the children in need of love from parents. We will continue to serve wholeheartedly and free of charge — unwed mothers, children with malnutrition and differently abled children – in all homes/centres run by us, irrespective of caste, creed and religion by God’s grace.”
