| International News

Medical superintendent Patience William and cleaner Jagram of the Mission Hospital in Ratlam, a town in Madhya Pradesh state, were arrested Feb. 18. The arrest came after police dug up from the hospital premises 442 bones suspected to be from stillborn babies. The arrested staff members were released on bail the following day.

The Church of North India (CNI)'s Bhopal diocese manages the 104-year-old hospital, a popular facility that provides health care for the poor. Ratlam is 800 kilometers south of New Delhi.

CNI and Catholic officials in the state allege the controversy was created to tarnish the image of Christians.

Satish Saxena, the highest police official in Ratlam district, told UCA News the arrested are charged with "intentionally and secretly disposing of stillborn babies." He said police dug up the bones following a tip-off that babies' bodies were buried on the hospital premises.

Soon after the police find, media reports accused the hospital of involvement in illegal abortions and female infanticide.

Members of some Hindu groups have demanded action against the hospital management, alleging they were involved in the abortion of female fetuses and killing of infant girls. Abortion is allowed in India in certain circumstances but is illegal if based on the gender of the fetus.

The district court, while granting bail to the accused, also constituted a five-member committee to probe the matter and submit a report before Feb. 25. The committee consists of a surgeon, pediatrician, gynecologist and two members of the state pollution-control board.

Saxena said action would be taken against the accused if warranted on the basis of the findings of the committee and laboratory tests on the bones.

The police officer said "prima facie findings" suggest the hospital failed to dispose of stillborn infants' bodies using a proper and mandatory bio-waste disposal system.

However, Suresh Carleton, spokesperson of Bhopal diocese, told UCA News the hospital "was framed." He said a police team searched the hospital Feb. 17 and seized a few bones of stillborn babies buried in its compound. The next day they came with bulldozers and dug up more bones and "even opened the septic tank on the pretext of suspicion," he added. He suspects a pharmaceutical supplier, whose contract was rejected this year, could be behind the incident.

"Nothing was unusual" in finding the bones of stillborn babies, the CNI official maintained, explaining that as a cultural trait, parents do not accept the bodies of stillborn children. It then becomes the hospital's responsibility to dispose of these.

Several hospitals in the state do not have advanced bio-disposal systems and they bury stillborn babies within the compound. "Such bones could be found in any hospital" in the state, according to Carleton. He suggested some "vested interests" want to tarnish the image of the church institution that served people for over a century.

Backing his claim, a delegation of doctors met the district magistrate, the highest government official in the district, on Feb. 19 and urged him to take steps to stop the media from projecting the hospital negatively. The delegation also reportedly told the magistrate that it is "a natural process in every hospital to dispose of the bodies of stillborn babies when their parents refuse" to accept them.

CNI Bishop Laxman Meda of Bhopal, who is in Ratlam, also said the controversy was "a ploy" to tarnish Christian health services. He told UCA News Christian leaders would meet "very shortly to discuss the issue."

Medical superintendent William, a medical doctor, described his arrest as "the result of a conspiracy" to defame the hospital. She says he was interrogated for a whole day at the police station.

Father Anand Muttungal, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh, told UCA News on Feb. 20 that the government machinery was "playing along" with Hindu radicals, who want "to defame the wonderful health service the church provides to the poor and the needy."

He and other church leaders in the state have complained of growing incidents of violence against Christians after the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian people's party) came to power in December 2003.

The present controversy is "a well-orchestrated conspiracy to portray the much-acclaimed health services of the church in a poor light," Father Muttungal said. "Who will take the responsibility to dispose of the stillborn babies if their parents did not want to take them?" he asked. The priest appealed to the government to end the harassment of the hospital.