KRISHNAS BEGIN ABUSE RECOVERY PROGRAM

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness — more commonly known as Hare Krishnas — has disclosed its plans to spend $1 million on a multi-year program to help hundreds of children of its members who suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the sect’s boarding schools during the 1970s and 1980s. The project, known as ISKCON Office of Child Protection, initially designated $250,000 for the first year, but has announced an additional allocation of $750,000 which is to be spent over a three-year period.

According to a Religious News Service report, “Boarding school teachers, movement officials, monks and gurus (spiritual leaders) were most often responsible for the abuse.” The movement has established an office in Alachua, Fla., to function as its administration center in dealing with the abuses. Last year the group voluntarily released details of the child abuse which it described as “widespread,” occurring in the sect’s schools in the United States, India and elsewhere. Up until the organization’s public disclosures, knowledge of the events was primarily confined to those inside the movement. Details of the problems were brought out in a fall 1998 edition of the ISKCON Communications Journal.

The boarding schools, known as “gurukulas,” were originally established to free Hare Krishna parents from the obligation of child raising, which permitted them to invest more time in the proselyting and book selling efforts of the sect. Children were sometimes placed in educational institutions located thousands of miles from parents. As parents learned of the mistreatment, they took their children and left the sect, leading to the eventual downfall of the schooling system.

At least two-thirds of the designated funds will be used for psychological counseling and job training for the victims of the abuse. The remaining revenue will be spent on education of Hare Krishna leaders and parents to help eliminate further or future occurrences of child abuse.

Anuttama Dasa, national spokesman for the organization, said the monies will come from the earnings generated by the sale of the sect’s colorful and lavishly illustrated books. He further revealed that the abuse recovery program will utilize about 80% of the group’s annual net revenue accrued from book sales. “This represents a major commitment of money for us,” Anuttama said. In the past, book sales income was used to finance the construction and maintenance of Hare Krishna temples. The sect regards the marketing of its publications as its “most sacred activity.”

—MKG

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