Respite for Bangalore’s Teresa

Sister Jean with a family in Bangalore

Bangalore, July 25: A 63-year-old British nun who has been nursing unwanted and uncared-for leprosy patients in Bangalore for the past 29 years has just escaped a forced exit from the country.

Sister Jacqueline Jean McEwan, lovingly called Mother Teresa of Sumanahalli, was told exactly a week ago that she had just seven days to leave India, and so had booked a seat in today’s 6.30pm Emirates flight to London via Dubai.

Around 2pm, as she was about to get into a car to travel to the airport, she received a phone call saying she had been given a one-month reprieve.

“I was just told I have a month to renew my (yearly) residence permit,” Sister Jean, who is attached to city-based charitable organisation Sumanahalli Society, told The Telegraph.

She had filed for a renewal two months before the deadline (which expired today), as she does every year. But last Monday, instead of being granted the renewal like other years, she was told to leave by today.

“The usual procedure is that I visit the FRRO (Foreigner Regional Registration Office) to file my renewal papers, and the person in charge takes the required time to look into my application,” Sister Jean said.

FRRO sources would not explain the reason for last Monday’s shocker and vaguely hinted at a Union home ministry decision in Delhi.

However, the London-born nun, who has been taking care of patients left to die by their families and society at large, has no complaints about the marching orders she received, or about having to renew her residence permit every year.

“What I need is some time to do my work,” she said. “I love my work.”

Even the annual trip to the FRRO is fine with her since it “just takes half a day to file my application for renewal”. But she says a long-term permit would certainly help.

She had earlier applied for one. “Once I was given a two-year permit,” she said, though she couldn’t recall the year.

Sister Jean had come to India in 1982 after the implementation of a Commonwealth agreement that allowed longer stays without residence permits. But in 1984, the Centre asked all foreigners to get registered and have a residence permit stamped on their passports.

Sumanahalli Society, which has about 60 staff members and a panel of doctors offering voluntary service, takes care of 800-odd patients suffering from leprosy and HIV/AIDS. Sister Jean additionally visits slums to tend to cancer patients.

“She is such a dedicated care giver who loves what she’s doing and plays a very important role in the organisation,” said Fr George Kannamthanam, director of the society.

It was Fr Kannamthanam who had called Sister Jean this afternoon to give her the news of the one-month breather. He said he would prefer a five-year visa for social workers. “It would certainly be better if people like Sister Jean are allowed longer periods of residence.”