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SOCIETY AND TRENDS: NRI ADOPTIONS
Foreign
Relations
More and more parents in Punjab's villages are offering
their children for adoption to NRI relatives, as much for enhancing their
economic status as to satiate their desire to have an overseas connection
By Ramesh Vinayak
Till about a year
ago, Parminder Singh was an oddity in Kohja, a small village near Jalandhar
in Punjab. Not only was his mud house incongruous amid the opulent farmhouses
built with NRI remittances, he also did not have relatives abroad. In
a village where a "foreign connection" is more a rule than an
exception, Parminder couldn't be blamed for nurturing the foreign dream.
His dream finally materialised in March 2000 when a distant relative in
Canada decided to adopt his 12-year-old daughter Dalbir Kaur.
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GURJIT SINGH, 16:
The only son of a reasonably well-to-do family from Dhilwan village
in Sangrur district, Gurjit has been adopted by an uncle who has
a daughter in the US.
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Dalbir is not alone. Spurred by parents' desire
for economic well-being and the status of having a foreign connection,
an increasing number of children in Punjab are being adopted by their
relatives abroad under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA).
Legally foolproof, adoption has emerged as the preferred route to circumvent
stringent immigration laws.
The trend has assumed humongous proportions
especially in the dollar-rich Doaba region-comprising Jalandhar, Kapurthala,
Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr-home to about two-thirds of 1.5 million Punjabis
who have crossed the seas. The Jalandhar Passport Office receives an average
of 250 applications annually for fresh passports for adopted children.
At the city's sub-registrar's office, about 100 NRI-sponsored adoption
deeds are registered every year. According to a conservative estimate
by officials concerned, the state registers around 500 such cases a year,
a tenfold increase since 1990. "The trend has spiralled in the past
five years," says Kapurthala-based lawyer J.J.S. Arora. Affirms Jalandhar
Passport Officer Bakshish Singh: "Most of the NRI adoption deeds
are in reality immigration deals."
Legally sound and inexpensive, adoption certainly
beats travelling abroad as human cargo. Take 16-year-old Gurjit Singh.
The only son of a reasonably affluent family at Dhilwan village in Sangrur,
he was adopted a year ago by his uncle who has four daughters, one of
them in the US. Once she gets an American citizenship, she will sponsor
her family, including Gurjit, for immigration. "It's a better way
to send him abroad than through the illegal route," says Gurjit's
father Balbir Singh whose younger brother went to Italy illegally by paying
Rs 4 lakh.
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GURVINDER SINGH, 10:
"His immigration will be like winning a lottery," says
Balwinder Kaur (left) of Dhilwan village, who has offered her only
son Gurvinder for adoption in Canada.
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It's simple. Adoption offers a cheaper road to
foreign lands. With avenues of legal immigration for non-professional
categories shrinking, the price for illegal immigration-Punjab's bane
for a long time-has shot up phenomenally: the going rate for an illegal
entry into the US or Canada is Rs 10 lakh while that for European countries
is Rs 4-6 lakh. At Rs 200 crore a year, the state contributes the most
to the human trafficking trade. Last year, the police received 1,100 complaints
and registered 130 firs against travel agents for defrauding immigration
aspirants. Though nearly 200 travel agents have been arrested, the racket
continues to flourish, according to Jalandhar police chief Gaurav Yadav.
The get-rich-quick desire is fired by expatriates
returning to flaunt their new-found affluence: money, flashy cars, gold
ornaments. "It's like a contagious disease," says Avtar Singh
of Begowal village in Kapurthala. Deported two years ago from Bulgaria
where he had gone illegally by paying Rs 4 lakh to a travel agent, the
23-year-old is now planning to go to the US and has already paid Rs 5
lakh to another agent.
As for adoptions, officials discern a gender
bias in favour of girls. The reason is simple: adoption under HAMA is
irrevocable and the adopted child becomes a legal heir. Since the covert
aim of such adoptions is restricted to immigration, adopting the girl
suits the NRIs because after marriage the girls don't stake a claim to
parental property. In rural Punjab, the adoption of girls is looked upon
as a socially acceptable way in which the NRIs can "lighten the burden"
of their relatives back home. Yet the adoptions are kept under wraps to
make the cases foolproof for immigration.
The NRI-sponsored adoptions have, however, spawned
a big racket involving official agencies that facilitate manipulation
of HAMA stipulations. The rates vary according to the formality, ranging
from forgery of birth certificates to fake witnesses. Balwinder Kaur of
Dhilwan village is offering her only son Gurvinder, 10, for adoption in
Canada. "His immigration will be like winning a lottery," says
Balwinder. A student of Class III, Gurvinder is being primed for immigration,
with the family hoping to manipulate his birth certificate through a late
entry to meet the HAMA provisions.
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DALBIR KAUR, 12:
Eldest of four children, Dalbir (second from right) of Kohja village
near Jalandhar has been adopted by a relative in Canada.
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A majority of adoptions are being undertaken
by expatriates of Punjab origin settled in Canada, which recognises the
adoption deeds under HAMA unlike several countries that insist on a court
decree. It is much easier to get an adoption deed from a tehsildar than
a court decree. But faced with a deluge of adoption cases-the Canadian
High Commission received 350 cases of NRI-sponsored adoptions in 2000,
about the same number in 1999-Canada tightened its immigration laws last
year. "Only 30 per cent of such cases proved to be genuine adoptions,"
says Rodney Fields, immigration counsellor at the high commission. "Our
immigration laws now have safeguards against such adoptions of convenience,"
he adds.
"Even legitimate adoptions within extended
families are viewed suspiciously and invariably turned down," laments
Harinder Singh Gahir, a Calgary-based immigration attorney in Canada.
Nearly nine out of 10 adoptions are being rejected, he says.
Though NRI-sponsored adoptions might seem foolproof,
there are loopholes. More often than not, the children are adopted through
a power of attorney sent by the prospective parents; such proxy adoptions
bereft of emotional ties lend to suspicion. Besides, though the adopted
child is supposed to be in the custody of the individual holding the power
of attorney for the adoptive parents till the immigration interview, most
adopted children stay with their natural parents. Despite being tutored
for the immigration interview, the children often provide enough clues
with their pat replies for the immigration authorities to see through
their game and brand them adoptions of convenience.
That hasn't stemmed the adoptions. On the contrary,
with every rejection, the circumventing manoeuvres become more refined.
For instance, a woman feigned "mental illness" and acquired
medical documents to lend weight to the case that she was unfit to take
care of her child.
The children too are rarely consulted by their
parents before signing the adoption deed. While a majority are blissfully
ignorant about the adoption, others are excited about travelling abroad,
a feeling often fostered by the parents themselves. "I wish I had
wings to fly to Canada," says Gurvinder of his impending immigration.
A dark side to such adoptions is that most children
face adjustment problems abroad. "The youngsters pay a heavy emotional
price for their parents' ambitions and grow up to be misfits," says
Ontario-based businessman-social worker Gurbachan Singh. The children
are often briefed that their adoption would make the family rich, so most
end up as earning members abroad. Jasbir Kaur was barely 14 when she arrived
in Ontario, Canada, from Hoshiarpur two years ago. She now works double
shifts at a local restaurant to send money back home.
However, such grim portents are no deterrents
for parents intent on realising their foreign dreams.
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