Moneylife: Pune: Friday, 07 November 2014.
Moneylife’s sustained campaign for a year has
saved Pune’s SOS Balgram from closure.
It will be a happy celebration for Save Our Soul
(SOS) Children’s Village (SOS Balgram) in Pune, on its anniversary day on 7th
November. The Principal Secretary of the Women and Child Welfare Department
issued a letter on 21 October 2014, to the SOS authorities saying that its
license has been re-issued and that the SOS should entirely look after the
orphanage. Until now, the state government had joined hands with the Swedish
NGO to run the Balgram.
This comes after an agonizing one-year battle with
the state government that time and again, threatened to close this 34-year-old
unique orphanage and sending the 200-odd children to different remand homes.
SOS Balgram is located on a prime 7-acre land, beside the elite Poona Club Golf
Course (it shares a common compound wall).
The Principal Secretary in his order has stated:
“1) The license of SOS Balgram has been re-instated 2) The state government has
revoked the order issued on 22 August, 2014 (of closure) 3) The order for
closure given by the Commissioner, Women and Child Welfare has also been
revoked 4) SOS India should nominate an administrator for the next five years
to look after the daily running of the orphanage.
An elated Ashok Ghadge, director of SOS Balgram,
said, “We are relieved that it is no more a fluid situation and we can
concentrate in the upbringing of children as per the high standards of SOS
guidelines. I thank Moneylife, which has played a prominent role in
highlighting the issue and also actively taking up the campaign on the ground,
along with ex-students of SOS.”
Moneylife had carried a story in September this
year, pointing out that the state government had written to the Commissioner,
Women and Child Welfare dept, to begin proceedings to close the orphanage and
begin the process of sending children to other homes. This had shocked the
children and trustees because of the suddenness of the order and had left no
hope for them.
It may be recalled that, Moneylife took up the
issue way back on 6th January this year when Rajendra Chavan, Commissioner of
Women and Child Welfare, ordered the cancellation of license and closure of the
34-year old SOS Balgram. Many ex-children of SOS Balgram, who are now grown up
and are professionals in several fields, went on a hunger strike. Moneylife
took up the campaign further by procuring information under Right to
Information (RTI) and guiding/ joining youngsters on how to go about the
campaign
SOS Balgram has an impeccable reputation of
running the unique orphanage wherein children live like families with a
`Mother’ in every cottage, for the last 34 years. Please see
http://www.moneylife.in/article/punes-sos-balgram-under-threat/36284.html
Why was SOS Balgram being shut down? This writer
had pointed out that the orphanage shares the same compound wall as the elite
Poona Club Golf Course. Reliable sources had hinted at vested interests keen on
grabbing the prime 7-acre land.
However, the Women and Child Welfare department
gave its own reasons for the closure – one of molestation and one of death of a
child in the last one and a half years at the orphanage. Another spoke in the
wheel was the amendment in the state government rules, wherein it is now
mandatory for boys and girls to stay separately. SOS though runs on the
philosophy of them staying together like children of a family with ‘Mother’ as
the head. SOS provides Rs5,000 per child per month and also pays for the
administrative staff. Now, SOS India is completely in charge of running the
orphanage, which it has agreed to.
The trustees of the SOS foundation had sought
legal intervention and moved the High Court for re-instatement of the license.
They had pointed to motives of two ex-students who were constantly entering
premises, for the last one and a half year and harassing `Mothers’, staff and
children but police was refusing to record their complaints. This writer, in
March this year, took along with her, a busload of children and Mothers and
compelled the Mundhwa Police to register their complaint. Thereafter, one of
them was arrested. The suspicion of whether some vested interest was propping
up these two ex-students to create mischief, continues.
The High Court directed the state government to
take a call on the orphanage. A couple of meetings were held with Varsha
Gaikwad, the then Minister of Women and Child Welfare and trustees were
positive, as she hinted at re-issuing the license but did not give any
assurance. August’s letter of closure came as a rude shock, but like they say,
all’s well that ends well.
SOS Balgram is all geared up for a cultural
function to celebrate the anniversary of the orphanage on 7th November. Against
this background, the two ex-students who created nuisance want to go on a
hunger strike, to protest against Balgram’s getting a second lease of life!
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