Saved: British-born Catholic nun Jacqueline Jean McEwan was to be forced out of India after three decades of caring for lepers
She became known as a modern-day Mother Teresa after spending three decades caring for leprosy patients in India.
Yet British nun Jacqueline Jean McEwan still found herself facing deportation back home when her application for a new resident permit was turned down.
Despite protestations and a huge public outcry, the 63-year-old was about to board a plane yesterday that would have taken her away from a life treating the sick and needy in Bangalore.
It was only then - amid warnings that the ‘heart’ would be ‘ripped out’ of the Catholic mission where she served - that the Indian government carried out a u-turn.
She has now been given a last-minute temporary reprieve to stay on in the country while her visa problems are sorted out. The country’s home secretary P Chidambaram said this means ‘Sister Jean’ should be able to stay ‘without limit of time’
‘I am overjoyed and very confident that I would live here forever,’ the Newcastle-raised Catholic nun said yesterday.
‘I love the people here and have a strong sense of attachment to this place.
‘It feels great to be with my well-wishers, my own kith and kin, mostly those inflicted with leprosy.
Welcome back: Jacqueline Jean McEwan was about top board a plane before the last-minute u-turn by the Indian government
‘I will strive for their welfare. There is no meaning in going back to UK when my people are here.’
Sister Jean has been working for leprosy patients in Bangalore city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after arriving in 1982.
Belonging to the Montfort Missionaries, a congregation of the Catholic church founded in France in the 18th century, she came from England as part of a batch of nurses and medics to the Sumanahalli Society in Bangalore.
She chose never to go back, and her work in the last 29 years means she is now called Sumanahalli’s ‘Mother Teresa’.
Sister Jean said she wasn’t given any reason by authorities for being kicked out and was simply told to leave the country by 25th July.
Caring: At the mission 'Sister Jean' has helped treat thousands of people
Some critics fear that Indian authorities do not like attention being drawn to a debilitating disease that they officially claim to have eradicated.
When she first arrived she hadn’t need any visa as at that time citizens of Commonwealth countries could travel to each other’s country without Visas.
When she applied for renewal of her resident permit to live in India in December 2010, she was denied permission to stay.
She said: ‘I still don’t know the reason. I’ve been living with the poor and needy all these years with the resident permit issued by Indian authorities.’
Before yesterday’s official u-turn, the Society’s director, Father George Kannanthanam, said: ‘We don’t have anybody to take care of our clinics who is as trained and committed as Sister Jean.
‘She’s wonderful – she knows every leprosy patient by name, even though Indian names are difficult.
‘They call her “Amma” (mother) – she’s like a mother to them. It’s as if Sumanahalli’s heart is being ripped out.’
Famous: Sister Jean is known as the British Mother Teresa for the work she has done in the country, and her proposed expulsion was national news
Sister Jean along with other Montfort sisters working at the centre provides treatment, education, housing and medical care.
She said she not only remembers each and every patient’s name, but also their treatment and even their family members. She remembers most of the 5000 odd patients’ names that Sumanahalli has treated in the past 29 years.
Even though the Indian government officially claims to have eliminated leprosy, there are still an estimated 130,000 Indians diagnosed with the disease every year – more than every other country put together.
Leprosy Patients are often pushed outside city limits and many also face lifelong rejection and discrimination. Due to lack of awareness in Indian society, there remains a widespread fear that the disease is highly contagious.
Sister Jean said that she only visits home occasionally now, to see her fellow nuns or her brother back in Newcastle.
They will have to wait a little longer before they next see her, and the Sumanahalli wore a festive look yesterday at the news.
‘The patients came and greeted me and one of the patients gave me a ring and a little cross...They welcomed me with garlands and bunches of flowers” said Sister Jean.
Her co-worker Mastan saab said: ‘We hope she remains here us for the rest of our lives. Without her, we are in the dark. Nobody would look after leprosy patients like her here if she’d left Bangalore.’
Setup in 1978, Sumanahalli Society is on a 63-acre plot near the Beggar’s Colony in Bangalore.
The organization has residential accommodation for about 120 poor leprosy patients and the mobile clinic looks after about 1,000 leprosy patients in the village in the heart of the city with funds from donors, trusts and philanthropic organizations and individuals. dailymail.co.uk
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