A practice for 10 years, says orphanage

Authorities of the Mukkam Muslim Orphanage (MMO) have clarified that bringing economically underprivileged children, including orphans, from other States to the orphanage to provide them education is nothing new and is a practice followed by them for the last 10 years.

Speaking to The Hindu over the phone on Monday, vice-president of the orphanage committee V. Muhammadmon Haji said around 300 students from the orphanage had gone to their native place in Jharkhand and Bihar on vacation in the second week of April.

While around 150 of them returned, many of them preferred to stay back at their native place. However, 285 new children from Jharkhand, including neighbours and relatives of those who have been studying at the orphanage, came along with those who returned to pursue their studies at the orphanage.

“We had provided return tickets to all those who went on vacation from the orphanage,” said Mr. Haji, who maintained that those who newly accompanied the group travelled without tickets, inviting fine from railway authorities.

Mr. Haji maintained that all the new children had documents, including the filled-in application form of the orphanage, birth certificate, income certificate from the village authorities concerned, and the Aadhaar card, with them.

These documents, he said, were with an elderly person, who accompanied the children. This person, who “fled the scene after being nervous of the police presence” reached Mukkam on Sunday and left the documents at the orphanage office.

“We have appointed an advocate to take all the documents to the authorities concerned and release the children,” said Mr. Haji, who wondered why the authorities detained even those 150-odd children, students of the orphanage who had ID cards with them.

Meanwhile, child welfare committee chairperson Sreela Menon told The Hindu that the committee was verifying the identity of the 150-odd children handed over to it by Palakkad district authorities on Sunday.

“A decision will be taken after verifying their identity and other documents,” said Ms. Menon. She said the children would be sent back to the orphanage, if they were found to be the rolls of the orphanage.