Bryan Walton

 

May 28 2008

 

To BBC

 

Regarding "Indian town's sex abuse claims", I regret that you have aired such a sensational and faultily researched program on Auroville - unprofessional to say the least.  Auroville has had zero tolerance for any pedophilia since the very earliest days when I lived there beginning in 1971.  Any such behavior has not and is not tolerated, and anyone proven to engage in it has always been immediately expelled. 

 

I developed a handicraft training center there, providing craft training for men, women, and especially for village children who were not attending local schools.  We provided a kindergarten with lunches, health care and language skills in Tamil, and the first running water into the local village.  Hundreds of Tamil children came through this community and training center called Fraternity, and we never experienced a problem of this nature.  And many joined Auroville as members over the years – ask Selvaraj, who, as a small boy with a small French girl, laid the cornerstone of Fraternity on 2-2-1972.   Ask Dhandapani, Raman, Saroja and so many others who grew up both in villages and in Auroville.   Like so many other Tamilians, they are now prominent members of Auroville and serving on many of its central committees.  And especially ask Shankar, now head of the New Creation Bilingual School that you needlessly maligned.  My wife and I are actively supporting it and will continue to do so.

 

I am confident that members of Auroville still uphold such high standards of behavior in relation to dealing with local children.  I acknowledge that temporary visitors to Auroville must be more closely monitored; for a casual reporter, they may be hard to tell from a true member of Auroville. 

 

As current Chair of Auroville International-USA, now living in the States, I ask BBC to return to Auroville with an objective reporter and conduct interviews to fully research the allegations that you have unfortunately aired.   She or he would be greatly amazed at the complete story of Auroville in relation to the Tamil villagers over the last 40 years.

 

Bryan Walton

Wisconsin , USA