{"id":5318,"date":"2017-11-01T18:11:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T18:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fighttrafficking.org\/?post_type=news_atc&p=5318"},"modified":"2019-07-24T18:14:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T18:14:04","slug":"head-of-christian-run-orphanage-in-india-arrested-in-trafficking-investigation","status":"publish","type":"news_atc","link":"https:\/\/www.fighttrafficking.org\/demo\/news_atc\/head-of-christian-run-orphanage-in-india-arrested-in-trafficking-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Head of Christian-run orphanage in India arrested in trafficking investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Head of Christian-run orphanage in India arrested in trafficking investigation<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Date: Monday, October 30, 2017<\/p>\n

Location: Chennai, India<\/p>\n

Police in southern India have arrested a pastor accused of trafficking girls through a Christian-run orphanage that was taken over by authorities two years ago during an investigation into the unregistered children\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Police in southern Tamil Nadu state said they arrested Pastor Gideon Jacob on Saturday after he arrived from Germany and he has been charged under trafficking and juvenile justice laws.<\/p>\n

Denying the allegations, Jacob\u2019s lawyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his client had voluntarily appeared before the police and was cooperating with the investigation.<\/p>\n

The Moses Ministries home in Tiruchy, run by Germany-based Christian Initiative for India that was founded by Jacob in 1989, housed 89 children, all said to have been rescued from female infanticide from Usilampatti in neighboring Madurai.<\/div>\n

However, the home had no proper records of the children, all of whom are now aged 18 years and above.<\/p>\n

In December 2015, the home was taken over by the social welfare department after a court directive.<\/p>\n

A wave of claims by people saying they were the children\u2019s parents prompted a local court to rule that all the children should undergo DNA testing to establish their real families.<\/p>\n

In 2016, DNA results showed at least 32 matches. None of the girls, however, have yet been reunited with their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been counseling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies,\u201d said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday\u2019s arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 40 percent of human trafficking cases in India in 2015 involved children being bought, sold and exploited as modern-day slaves, according to government crime data.<\/p>\n

There has been a recent spate of reports of the trafficking of infants and children for adoption and raising funds through charity-run child homes and private hospitals.<\/p>\n

In Tamil Nadu, state authorities closed 500 homes between 2011 and 2016, citing mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.<\/p>\n

Rights groups have long complained that children\u2019s homes in India are poorly regulated, not inspected often enough, and that many privately-run institutions are able to operate without a license leaving thousands of children open to abuse.<\/div>\n

\u201cThe arrest gives us hope that there will be justice,\u201d said A. Narayanan, the director of advocacy group Change India, who outlined the scope of the problem in a petition filed in Chennai\u2019s High Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real worry is when and how these girls will be rehabilitated. Right now, it seems like a life sentence, where they are resigned to live in an institutional home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Read the full Thomson Reuters Foundation\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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