01/05/2022 India (International Christian Concern) – According to the National Catholic Register, the Missionaries of Charity have begun to ration their distribution of food and other aid to India’s poor after the Indian government decided they were no longer eligible to receive foreign donations.
In Kolkata, the Missionaries of Charity normally help some 600 people with food aid every day. Recently, the breakfast service the organization provides was shortened by one hour, meaning some went without tea, bread, and eggs they normally depended upon to survive.
Other aid, such as blankets to be distributed to Kolkata’s poor, has also not arrived.
While foreign donations are not allowed to be received by the Missionaries of Charity, donations from within India are still allowed. In some cases, state governments are providing the organization with the funding it needs to continue its service to the poor.
On December 25, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs ruled that the Missionaries of Charity no longer met the eligibility requirements for foreign donations under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act. The ministry claimed unspecified “adverse inputs” as the reasoning for the decision.
In early December, the Missionaries of Charity were put under investigation in Gujarat after several false complaints were made against its shelters. Specifically, the shelters were accused of forcing girls to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers. Missionaries of Charity have denied these allegations as false and an attempt to besmirch the legacy of Mother Teresa.
Missionaries of Charity was founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1950. The charity now runs hundreds of shelters across India where “the poorest of the poor” receive care.
In recent years, the legacy of Mother Teresa and her works in India have come under assault by radical Hindu nationalists. Nationalists falsely claim Mother Teresa was involved in the fraudulent conversion of India’s poor and desperate to Christianity. These statements and accusations are meant to cast a negative light on Mother Teresa and India’s Christian community.
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