By Our Reporter
Shillong: Several NGOs including the Lympung ki Seng Kynthei, the convening body, the Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO- Agnes), the Khasi Students’ Union, Domestic Workers Union besides many other concerned individuals met at the Step by Step School on Wednesday to discuss the issue of alleged rape and molestation by Rev SK Miller of New Life Ministry.
The NGOs condemned the series of incidents of molestation indulged in by Miller and called for strict legal action against him. The meeting also urged the Child Welfare Committee of the Social Welfare Department which is questioning the children who have been abused and raped, to speed up the process and file the statements taken before a judicial magistrate at the earliest.
The NGOs also called for immediate removal of the present management from the Ministry so that free and fair investigations can be carried out.
Earlier, a US citizen, who said he had spent three years in Shillong and was part of the New Life Ministry, said that all the elders who are part of the Ministry but had chosen to remain silent about Miller’s acts of commission deserved to be booked because they are complicit by their silence.
Others suggested that the hostel – New Life Home– should be shut down at once and the financial affairs of the Ministry be prised open to find out how destitute children have been used as child labour in the Home even while donations were being sought from foreign donors for their upkeep.
Earlier, Angela Rangad, social activist, informed the gathering that Meghalaya did not yet have a Child Protection Act (CPA) which states like Goa have legislated on. “This Act would have provided avenues for protection of abused children and child labourers who are growing in numbers in the State,” Rangad said, adding that people who run hostels for school and college students should be asked to register with an authority like the CPA. She cited instances where boys have been abused in certain hostels in Shillong but they did not know where to seek help.
The NGOs present at the meeting have called on all children who are abused, molested, raped and do not know how to seek help, to call ChildLine at 1098.
Meanwhile the meeting also called on the law enforcers to handle the Miller case with the rigour it deserves.
“Rape and molestation charges are non-bailable offences but Miller is known to be an influential person. He should in fact have been arrested and we need to know what his health status actually is,” some NGO members observed.
Others pointed out to the random opening of hostels in Shillong without any supervision about how they are run. The meeting urged the Government to come down heavily on these hostels and to maintain strict vigil on how these are being run because they felt that similar instances of abuse and rape of young girls might be happening in other hostels as well.
It is learnt that the parents of the abused children have arrived at Shillong and have been whisked away by the relative of Rev Miller. They have later decided to take their children back home.
“We should ensure that the statements of these children are recorded before a magistrate, before they are allowed to leave Shillong,” Angela Rangad said. She also called upon the investigating agencies to seize the computers and mobile phones of the managers of New Life Ministry to find out the modus operandi on which the Ministry is run.