Thread by @scroll_in

In recent years, the NCPCR has devoted considerable attention to poorly substantiated complaints against minority communities.

This week in #CommonGround, @AarefaJohari and @iyersaishwarya investigate the Hindutva hijack of India's child rights body. scroll.in/article/101642…

This story is part of #CommonGround, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. scroll.in/article/101642…

By @AarefaJohari, @iyersaishwarya

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#CommonGround | Under the NCPCR's current chairman, Priyank Kanoongo, the commission has expended considerable resources on pursuing complaints that target minority communities, in many cases for alleged forcible conversion. scroll.in/article/1016421

Rather than protecting children, the NCPCR is seen as being used to pursue a communal agenda.

@AarefaJohari with @iyersaishwarya investigate the Hindutva hijack of India's child rights body.

This week on #CommonGround
scroll.in/article/101642…

In Dec 2021, a school in MP was attacked by a Hindu mob protesting allegations that children had been forcibly converted to Christianity elsewhere

Ironically, the sequence of events leading to the attack can be traced back to a letter from NCPCR scroll.in/article/101642…

#CommonGround: Under Kanoongo, the NCPCR has been transformed from an organisation that advocates for the rights of children in India to one that selectively uses them to pursue Hindutva causes and target religious minorities scroll.in/article/101642…

@AarefaJohari's ground report

#CommonGround: Contrary to rumours of conversion, children from Christian families had received communion in October 2021: Jose Lee Cyrakkove, the parish priest of Ganj Basoda's St Joseph's Church scroll.in/article/101642…

“Their parents themselves had requested the ceremony."

#CommonGround | A screenshot from the YouTube video of the channel Aayudh, which spoke of unsubstantiated rumours of forced conversion as if they were fact.

The video was widely circulated in the days leading up to the attack [on the school]. scroll.in/article/1016421

#CommonGround: Nilesh Agarwal, a Bajrang Dal leader from Ganj Basoda, suggested that some sort of public trial was called for because there had been rumours of forced conversion of children.

Read more: scroll.in/article/101642…

#CommonGround: Under Priyank Kanoongo, the current chairperson of the NCPCR, the Commission has expended considerable resources on pursuing poorly substantiated allegations of forced conversion.

Read more: scroll.in/article/1016421

#CommonGround: Sabu Puthenpurackal, the public relations officer of Sagar diocese, said that the place that Kanoongo had raided in Nov 2021, claiming it was an educational institution, was in fact a hostel.

Read more: scroll.in/article/101642…

#CommonGround: In 2020, the NCPCR raided two Delhi shelter homes run by an organisation headed by activist Harsh Mander.

The commission's claims were rebutted by three inspection committees of the #Delhi government.

Read: scroll.in/article/1016421

#CommonGround: Among the children who were sent out of CES's shelter homes was 14-year-old Kabir. He has since been doing menial work to survive and support his alcoholic father.

Read more: scroll.in/article/101642…

#CommonGround: The families of the children in Bijnor who were detained by the police after Citizenship Amendment Act protests said that the children were still traumatised by the treatment the police had subjected them to.

Read more: scroll.in/article/101642…

#CommonGround: In Muzaffarnagar, reports emerged of 14 students being detained after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Read more: scroll.in/article/101642…