India Trafficking, APs Hand Over Their Kids and Supreme Court Notice to CARA UPDATE

Three explosive stories about trafficked children and lack of paper trails in India have been reported in the past four days.

Adoption Racket

Charges have been brought “against a doctor and three others for running an adoption racket. The Delhi police had caught the accused red-handed. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav said there is enough evidence against the accused to prove prima facie that there is a case against them.”

“The police had, in December 2010, arrested Dr Atul Thapar, Pawan Kumar, Ranjeeta and Shobha Gupta for allegedly indulging in kidnapping of children.

According to the prosecution, the police arrested Pawan Kumar and Ranjeeta from Shivaji Vihar, Delhi, with a child in their lap on December 19.

During questioning the duo disclosed details about the sale and purchase of some other children as well.

During the course of investigation, three more children were recovered on the basis of information provided by the arrested accused.

During investigation, it also came to light that Shobha Gupta was engaged in similar activities and that she, alongwith her associate Anupma Lal, had sold a female baby of 8-10 days to one Mamta Aggarwal and had obtained a false MCD birth certificate in the name of the infant from one Dr Sunita Mehta.

The natural parents of the four babies recovered in the matter have not yet been traced, the court said.

Adoption scam: charges to be framed against doc, 3 others
[Hindustan Times 4/17/11]

Adoptive Parents Asked to Hand Over Their Kids for DNA Tests

In Chennai, “Five children were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by their adoptive parents on Monday. TOI had reported on Sunday about six-year-old Sweety alias Ruksana being recovered from her adoptive parent.

After the Madras high court ordered that Sweety be handed over to the children’s committee, the other adoptive parents had absconded with the children, sources in the CWC said.”

“We plan to conduct DNA tests on the biological and adoptive parents of two of the five children over the next few days,” CWC chairperson Dr P Manorama told TOI. The biological parents of the other children had not yet come forward to claim them, she said”
5 ‘adopted’ kids handed over to CWC by parents

[The Times of India 4/19/11]

Supreme Court Issues Notice to CARA for Lack of Record-Keeping
“The Supreme Court Thursday issued notice to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), and central government on the failure to check child trafficking and causing delays in adoptions.

The writ petition filed by Ashraya, a child adoption agency, sought a holistic review of the adoption policy process in India. The petition alleged that the adoption policy in India is currently plagued by corruption, red tape, delays, and overarching Governmental interference. The petition said, “The nodal agency CARA had failed in executing its task of controlling and moderating the adoption process.”

The petition also alleged that the central government has not maintained any record of the adoptable children in the country. According to the petition the central government has failed to direct the various state governments to register all Child Welfare Institutions as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000.

The petition also pointed out to the fact that states in India does not have any official figures of the number of abandoned and relinquished children, which could ensures that when a minor is missing, sold, trafficked or even killed, there would be some record of the child’s existence.

The petitioner Ashraya is an adoption agency run by Padma Shri winner Nomita Chandy.”

SC issues notice to Centre and CARA on child adoption policy
[Law et al News 4/22/11 by Soibam Rocky Singh ]

Update: “Six NGOs, including Calcutta’s Society for Indian Children’s Welfare, have filed the petition claiming the adoption process is plagued by corruption, red tape, delays, government interference and Cara’s failure to discharge its obligations. ”

“Adoption statistics from the Cara website show a decline in legal adoptions in the past decade, though the demand for babies has only grown, the NGOs pointed out to bolster their claim that the agency wasn’t functioning properly. Cara also has not finalised adoption guidelines that have been in “draft” form since 2006.

Citing another instance of the alleged bias, the NGOs said an inordinate number of abandoned children sent to private agencies by child welfare committees — government panels in districts that decide the fate of homeless children — are disabled, while the shishu grihas “choose” kids who will be placed in their care.”

SC glare on child adoption flaws
[The Telegraph 4/22/11]

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