At 3,000,Tamil Nadu holds the distinction of having the highest number of registered NGOs in India.It also receives a large amount of foreign funds for its NGO sector.
World Vision,Chennai,has been one of the top recipients of foreign funds for the last couple of years,getting Rs 256 crore in 2007.
According to a report by the ministry of home affairs,Tamil Nadu got close to 20 per cent of all the funding routed to India in the year 2007.It also marked a 56 per cent increase in the inflow of funds from the previous year.
Sadly,the generous funding is attracting all sorts of unscrupulous elements to'social work'.They float new NGOs and set up unregistered children's homes with bare minimum facilities.
These crooks running the homes masquerade as pastors,missionaries and so on,and have links with small denomination churches in the northeast.With the help of these churches,they manage to convince locals about their ostensible intentions - giving the children a better education - and take them away to'homes'.Then,with their church connections,they manage to get funds.Many such homes are just a front for making money in the name of religion and social work.
Last month,close to 100 children from Assam and Manipur,aged between 8-12 years,were rescued from such homes in Chennai and Kanyakumari.
The police rescued 16 Manipuri children from Reach Home Children Foundation,an NGO at Mogappair in Chennai on January 5.
Within a matter of days,76 children - 53 of them from Manipur and the rest from Assam - were rescued from Bedesta Blessing,a children's home in Kuzhithurai in Kanyakumari district.
"Some of the children from Reach Home Foundation told us that they were molested by Immanuel,a pastor who was running the home,and his teenaged son.Several of them had developed scabies and other skin infections.They were all terribly malnourished," CWC chairperson,P Manorama,told TOI-Crest.
Police suspect that some girls from the Kanyakumari home may have been used as sex workers.In an earlier incident in August 2008,22 Manipuri children were rescued from Life Children's Home,an unregistered home run by a pastor called Justin in Padappai,Chennai.
Traffickers are flourishing in the state as the government struggles to check the menace in the absence of strong laws and adequate monitoring agencies.Tamil Nadu has just 18 CWCs with five members each,whereas,ideally,there should be one committee for each of the 32 districts.Officials admit that there are about 1,000 unregistered children's homes,which may be housing lakhs of children with absolutely no governmental supervision.
The three-year tenure of the juvenile justice board came to an end in July,2009,but the state government is yet to constitute a new board."Tamil Nadu is one of the few states that are yet to notify the Juvenile Justice Act,2006.This is because the state has not formulated rules under the amended Act," says Vidya Reddy of Tulir,Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.
The government,though,has lately spruced up its act.Social welfare commissioner M P Nirmala says all district collectors have been asked to form teams to inspect children's homes across the state."In six months,we will have child welfare boards in every district.The number of CWCs will also be increased," she says.
The two incidents last month have spurred the Crime Branch-CID to hold meetings with the social welfare department for joint action."All district collectors and SPs have been instructed to monitor and raid children's homes," says CB-CID ADGP Archana Ramasundaram.
However,the crime continues unabated.While interviewing the children rescued from Bedesta Blessing,the police stumbled on some shocking news - 74 girls were smuggled to Bangalore just before the raid at the home.The police are on the look out for these unfortunate children.