Ranchi: A surprise inspection at a residential missionary school in Kanke by the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Monday exposed the insanitary conditions in which 100-plus students study and live, and the torment they are allegedly subjected to in the name of discipline.
Bethel Mission School in Arsande has come under the scanner in the aftermath of alleged baby trafficking from Nirmal Hriday, the Missionaries of Charity-run shelter for rescued minor girls in the capital.
The SCPCR has directed the coeducational school, run by Bethel Mission (Social and Welfare Society), to furnish details of all children staying at the hostel to the district child welfare committee ASAP.
Chairperson of SCPCR Arti Kujur, who led the inspection, said she was appalled by the lack of hygiene everywhere.
"The hostel rooms could make your stomach churn. Toilets stank like hell. The clothes students wore were very untidy. Also, wardens were missing in action," she told this newspaper.
Classrooms are no better, the SCPCR found.
"Some of them were waterlogged. There were no lights in many," Kujur said, adding that the kitchen was a den of diseases. "Bovine animals are kept tied right next to where food is prepared for the children. Can it get any worse?"
A few students to whom Kujur spoke apparently told her that they were subjected to corporal punishment. "The children are beaten regularly. I have learnt that they are made to carry construction materials for a new building, and often engaged in cleaning the school and hostel premises."
Unaided Bethel Mission School, functioning privately since 1974 and registered in 1996, has 150 students on its rolls from kindergarten to Class X. While 50 are day scholars, the others stay in the residential section that came up in 1994. There are eight teachers.
Kujur said the school had applied for shelter registration under the Juvenile Justice Act on July 26. "We shall wait till the school furnishes details of all children and then decide if a no-objection can be granted," she added.
Principal James Kullu claimed the school was in expansion mode and hence, a tad untidy.
"The old two-storey hostel building has 12 rooms - junior girls live on the first floor and junior boys on the ground floor. The upcoming building will also have two storeys, but with 14 rooms for senior boys and girls. We also have eight classrooms," he said, adding that both students and teachers together cleaned the premises from 4pm to 5pm every day. "There is nothing wrong in it."
Kullu indicated that the state crackdown on missionary institutions was biased.
"If she (Kujur) is unhappy with us, we know the reasons. But, we will continue doing our best because this school caters to poor children and orphans. We charge a nominal fee from only those who can afford to pay. We don't take government or any other aid," the principal said and also rubbished allegations of corporal punishment.
