The Indian government has asked all states to link child care institutions with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) within a month following Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity baby selling scandal.
Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi has instructed all the states to inspect all child care institutes run by Missionaries of Charity across the country.
"The child care institutions should have been linked long back. The deadline for registering all CCIs was December 1, 2017, and it is something that needs to be urgently done," CARA CEO Lt Col (retd) Deepak Kumar told news agency PTI.
Earlier this month, Missionaries of Charity came under the scanner after the Jharkhand Police arrested a nun and a woman employee of Missionaries of Charity for reportedly selling babies as part of a child trafficking racket. They are believed to have sold four babies in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
On Saturday (14), Senior Superintendent of Police Anis Gupta told news agency Press Trust of India that sister Konsalia of the charity confessed to selling three children to three persons. Another person employed with shelter home 'Nirmal Hriday' was arrested on July 4 for allegedly selling a child born to a minor inmate of the home to a couple .
The first baby was rescued on July 3 and barely a week later the second child was rescued from Morabadi area of Ranchi. The third baby was rescued from Simdega in Jharkhand on 11 July. On Sunday (15), law enforcement officials found the fourth baby that was allegedly given away for free.
Pope Francis greets Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit near Bari, Italy, in June last year, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and then British prime minister Rishi Sunak look on
