ICC Note:
Last month, authorities in India detained over 70 children and arrested 10 Christian adults on their way to a Christian summer camp. According to reports, the Christians were charged with attempting to forcefully convert the children whose parents are practicing Christians and had given their consent to the children attending the summer camp. The authorities claim that the children are technically Hindus because their parents did not get the proper permission for the state government to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. Will India drop the charges of forced conversion against the 10 Christian chaperones?
06/06/2017 India (CBN) – Indian authorities detained a total of 71 children who were on their way to a Christian summer camp on May 21 and 22 in the Madhya Pradesh region. Although the children belong to Christian families, the state claims they “attempted conversion” into the faith, according to a report from the Crux.
The children were between the ages of 13 and 15.
Two adult men taking the children to the camp were also accused on the same charge.
The children were eventually released to their families.
However, the state government set the children and their family’s status as Hindu. The state claims they never officially converted to Christianity, even though the children’s families are all Christian.
The Indian state considers a conversion that it doesn’t sanction “illegal.”
Bhupendra Singh, home minister of the region, heads up state security. He said that “Illegal religious conversion activities are being carried out in a large scale in Jhabua and Alirajpur. We are trying to get to the bottom of the racket.”
“For changing to another religion, one needs to submit a written application to the district collector and only after the stipulated process, a person can change religious identity, which didn’t happen in the case of any of the parents claiming to be Christians” said Krishnaveni Desavatu, a police superintendant.
“This is why, the children and their parents will be officially treated as Hindu tribals and not Christians,” he said, according to The Indian Express.
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