Chennai is Hub for Baby Trafficking for Illegal Adoption
“Is Chennai becoming a hub for baby trafficking? So it seems, say child rights activists, insisting that while the Sunday detention of a Nepali woman caught with a six-day-old boy at the government children’s hospital in Egmore is the latest case of botched up baby sale, several deals go undetected.
“It is shocking to know that this Nepali woman told the police she bought the baby for Rs 10,000 and the cops found that the woman who had sold the child to her had bought him from another woman in Tindivanam for Rs 6,000. Trafficking of stolen babies has gone up and we are worried,” said Balaji, member, state child welfare committee (CWC).
Alarmed at the increase in the number of babies being stolen, particularly from government maternity hospitals, the CWC held a meeting recently where measures were discussed to discourage illegal adoption of stolen kids.
For instance, the abandoned/ rescued babies arriving at CWC could be given in adoption only after getting clearance from the crime branch CID that the child’s roots are untraceable.
“We need a comprehensive campaign by multiple organisations to address the problem of baby trafficking,” said a CWC member, Sheila Charles Mohan.
“The police need to coordinate with CWC and agencies connected with child welfare. As the babies disappear mostly from government hospitals, we strongly believe that the staff are involved.”
Mohan said that government agencies and NGOs should apply a different yardstick for abandoned children as they would require long-term solutions such as finding a good foster home, unlike stolen babies being quickly restored to their biological parents by police.
One recent case was that of a woman who was arrested at Koyambedu bus terminus for using a baby for begging. “She had bought the baby for Rs 100. We took custody of the child and housed it at Bala Mandir.”
Chennai hub for baby trafficking
[Deccan Chronicle 12/10/12 by Pramila Krisnan]
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