Hindustan Times (Gurugram)

UK REGULATOR RAPS CHARITY FOCUSED ON TAMIL NADU KIDS

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LONDON: Britain’s regulator of charity organisati­ons has criticised the trustees of Grail Trust, which focuses on disadvanta­ged children in Tamil Nadu, for its inadequate handling of an allegation of child abuse involving a person linked to its India partner.

The Charity Commission said in its inquiry report released on Tuesday that there were serious governance failures due to the trustees’ lack of proper oversight in relation to safeguardi­ng measures and their failure to identify or report the allegation to the police or the commission as a serious incident.

The widely reported allegation related to a children’s home in India run by the trust’s partner, Grail Trust India (GTI), which has now closed.

The Wales-based charity raised funds for and provided financial support to GTI to run the home, which was periodical­ly visited by representa­tives of the charity.

“The Commission does not investigat­e allegation­s of abuse but intervenes to ensure that trustees are protecting their charity and its users…The inquiry found that the initial response by the trustees to the allegation was inadequate as they did not report the allegation and were not impartial in considerin­g the allegation, which they publically rejected,” the report said.

The inquiry also found that the charity’s trustees had failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that safeguards put in place by GTI were adequate.

The trustees told the inquiry that, when the allegation was brought to their attention, they did not believe it was appropriat­e to report it to the commission because they were not aware of any formal charges and the allegation appeared, in their view, to be malicious and unsubstant­iated.

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