From: http://www.deccanherald.com
I have no idea if this is true. Is anyone able to search these references? It reads as a little bit exaggerated but I have no idea what being a BK in the villages in like. I took out "torture" from the heading of this post but "kidnapping" I can believe. My guess is rather than a "darkened room" it was just a closed center.
In my part of the country, there was a case where a young girl joined up the BKs, I do not have the exact details may be she was genuinely interested, but ended up under "house arrest". That is, she was never allowed out without two chapperones, two BKs accompanying her at all times. Even to her own Father's funeral. Eventually, she managed to escape and hid out at a local temple who dressed her up back to normal before helping her find her way back to her family.
I am detached enough to think that such cases are the doings not of the institution but the individual center heads or BKs BUT the organization does see to support the excessive followers and does not seem to have a place people can complain to safely. I don't know, I am not in India now. Does anyone still there know of similar happenings? I would have though that by the 21st Century, people we above such rudimentary coersion.
I wonder now about some of the young girls I used to see around the centers and ask how many of them were entirely voluntary and what experience they were having? Due to the pressure in the BKWSU not to have a real conversation, not to ask someone how they were feeling, how the Seniors were treating them, the ability to admit whether one was happy or not; it makes me wonder ...
I have no idea if this is true. Is anyone able to search these references? It reads as a little bit exaggerated but I have no idea what being a BK in the villages in like. I took out "torture" from the heading of this post but "kidnapping" I can believe. My guess is rather than a "darkened room" it was just a closed center.
In my part of the country, there was a case where a young girl joined up the BKs, I do not have the exact details may be she was genuinely interested, but ended up under "house arrest". That is, she was never allowed out without two chapperones, two BKs accompanying her at all times. Even to her own Father's funeral. Eventually, she managed to escape and hid out at a local temple who dressed her up back to normal before helping her find her way back to her family.
I am detached enough to think that such cases are the doings not of the institution but the individual center heads or BKs BUT the organization does see to support the excessive followers and does not seem to have a place people can complain to safely. I don't know, I am not in India now. Does anyone still there know of similar happenings? I would have though that by the 21st Century, people we above such rudimentary coersion.
I wonder now about some of the young girls I used to see around the centers and ask how many of them were entirely voluntary and what experience they were having? Due to the pressure in the BKWSU not to have a real conversation, not to ask someone how they were feeling, how the Seniors were treating them, the ability to admit whether one was happy or not; it makes me wonder ...
Girl alleges torture by religious outfit DH News Service, Davangere,
Raising suspicion over the happenings inside spiritual organisations, a 17-year-old girl has accused the members of Brahmakumari Eshwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya of kidnapping and torturing her with an intention of using her to propagate their philosophy.
Disclosing this to the media on Sunday, Sridevi, the daughter of Holebasappa and Gunavati of Chikkalingadahalli in Haveri taluk, said she managed to free herself from the clutches of the members of the organisation, who, she alleged, had locked her up in a dark room for about two months. According to the story narrated by Sridevi, she came in contact with Vinaya, the head of Brahmakumari Kendra, when she had gone to her aunt’s house in Hoovinahadagali on January 15.
She used to visit the Kendra very often to prepare Prasadam. On March 19, Leela and Nirmala, two members of the organisation, asked her to come with them to Davangere to attend some programme.
Instead, they took her on an inter-city train to Tumkur where she was locked up at Brahmakumari Kendra in Chickpet, Sridevi alleged.
However, she managed to get out when all the members had gone to Mysore on Saturday leaving behind an old woman to guard her. Her Father came to Tumkur to take her away after she informed him over phone, she explained. She accused the members of the organisation of torturing her physically. They removed all her jewellery and forced her to wear white saree, she said. Sridevi’s Father Holebasappa accused the Hoovinahadagali police of not receiving the complaint after his daughter disappeared.