Mother Teresa: A Biography by Meg Greene

Author:Meg Greene [Greene, Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Christianity, India, Biography, Missions, Christian Ministry, Nuns, Asia, REVELATION, Calcutta, Nuns - India - Calcutta, General, Religious, History, Teresa, Women, ~ REVELATION, Biography & Autobiography, Religion, Missionaries of Charity, India & South Asia
ISBN: 9780313327711
Publisher: Greenwood
Published: 2004-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

SHISHU BHAVAN AND

SHANTINAGAR: PLACES OF

PEACE

By 1955, Mother Teresa turned her energies to another group in need: the children of the poor. In a relatively short time, Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity had made progress in providing education for poor children with the creation of schools in the slums. But providing children with an education paled beside even bigger problem: what to do with the growing number of unwanted and abandoned children in the city.

Since India’s independence, the number of unwanted children roaming in the streets of Calcutta has increased. Orphaned, sick, and disabled children were often cast into the streets to fend for themselves. Some children tried to eke out a living by begging, others through petty crime such as stealing. Poor families, faced with the growing burden of supporting their children, abandoned them. Young girls and infants particularly were at great risk, because in Indian society boys are considered more valuable.

Evidence of this cultural bias was everywhere; for the Missionaries of Charity the sight of a newborn female infant, alone and left to die, was common. For Mother Teresa, children were a special gift from God. She wrote:

Children long for somebody to accept them, to love them, to praise them, to be proud of them. Let us bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way the world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their place.1

8 0

M O T H E R T E R E S A

Even though many Catholic charities were active in this area and Calcutta had a number of orphanages, the number of children on the streets were growing too quickly for these groups to manage.

SHISHU BHAVAN

To Mother Teresa, the sight of so many unloved children was heart-breaking. It was not enough to rescue as many children as possible from the streets, the gutters, the garbage heaps, and the alleyways. What was needed was a refuge where the children could be taken, nurtured, and loved. For Mother Teresa, these children were nothing less than a symbol of the Christ child. Although other charities in Calcutta did their best to deal with the problem, it was clear that they needed help. As with Nirmal Hriday, Mother Teresa had once again identified a problem that was causing the city officials of Calcutta a great deal of embarrassment. As a result of her previous successes, she received recognition and cooperation from the highest offices in the city.

During one of her many forays through the city, Mother Teresa made the acquaintance of Dr. B. C. Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal and a medical doctor. Dr. Roy often gave free consultations at his home office and Mother Teresa lined up with the rest of the poor every day at 6 A.M.

More often than not, her requests were political, rather than medical. She told the doctor about the needs for water or electricity in a slum area that she had visited.

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