India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Wants Answers on “Fake” International Adoptions and Lack of Child Protection Units

“Fake” International Adoptions

“Concerned over fake inter-country adoptions, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has demanded an action report from the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), especially in cases where children have gone missing and traced in foreign lands.

Following representations from NGOs, activists and group of parents complaining that a number of Indian placement agencies were involved in fake adoptions, NCPCR wrote to CARA earlier this month, citing cases of nine children, who went missing from various parts of the country and were later traced to foreign countries, including Denmark, Spain, the US and Italy.

“We have sought an action report from CARA on these nine cases. We are worried about the rights of these children who are growing in alien environs and away from their biological parents,” a NCPCR member told PTI here.

These cases were brought to NCPCR’s attention during an International Meet for Mutual Cooperation on Inter-Country Adoption between India and other countries held in February here.

In its letter, NCPCR also mentioned that these inter-country adoptions carried out without biological parents consent is a breach of the procedural mandates laid down by the Supreme Court in the matter.

It is also in violation of Article 4 of the Hague Convention according to which “an adoption shall take place only if the competent authorities of the state of origin have established that the child is adoptable, consider inter-country adoption to be in child’s best interests after considering all possibilities of in-country adoption” apart from obtaining all necessary consent including that of the parents, NCPCR said.

The letter carries special mention of a boy’s ordeal who was kidnapped when he was just a year old, while he was sleeping outside his house with his parents in Chennai in 1999 and placed in adoption with a family in the Netherlands through a Dutch adoption agency.

According to the letter, CBI has investigated the case and submitted charge sheet in an Egmore court which issued a Letters Rogatory in 2008 under Section 165 A of the Criminal Procedure Court to the Netherlands for execution of the guilty, which the Dutch authorities denied to have received.

Thus the matter has not moved ahead and the parents of the child are still waiting for him to come back to India.

The letter also seeks action report of the eight other children who are fraudulently taken and are now living in Denmark, Spain, the US, Italy, Australia and Germany.”

NCPCR seeks report from CARA on fake adoptions

[Zee News 6/20/13]

Lack of Child Protection Units

It is no surprise that there are major gaps in the quantity of child protection units.

“As many as 13 districts in the state do not have adoption reception and placement units for orphaned children. Moreover, only three districts have fully functional child protection units. These were the observations made by Nina Nayak, member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Nayak stated that last year, the Gujarat government left over Rs 400 crores unspent in the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare fund. This fund is supposed to help the children of construction workers through support services like scholarships for studies.

Nayak was on a visit to the state to inspect the progress of child protection and adoption units set up under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). “Only 50% of the districts have adoption units for children and those units that do exist are not functional to their capacity,” said Nayak.

“In the case of child protection units, except for Anand, Valsad and Vadodara, the districts have only 50-60% of the required staff,” said Nayak. Child protection units were set up under ICPS to strengthen the Juvenile Justice Act by the government of India.

The NCPCR team also revealed that the District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC), which was supposed to be re-appointed by the state government six months ago is not fulfilling its duties. “Officials of the DCWC are supposed to meet three times a week to look into children’s issues, but they only hold meetings once a week,” said Nayak.

The state government is yet to set up a selection commission for the appointment of officials in the DCWC across the state. The reason given is that the government is yet to receive allocation from Central government.

Despite all these shortcomings, the NCPCR claimed that Gujarat is doing better than many states in terms of child rights. The NCPCR team also met with different NGOs and IG (crime) to assess the work they are doing for children and their rehabilitation.”

50% districts without child adoption units

[The Times of India 7/19/13]

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