Children For Sale
For as little as Rs 3,000, impoverished parents sell their children to adoption centres and unscrupulous operators in Andhra Pradesh, who in turn earn up to Rs 3 lakh from foster families. A look at the people involved, the law and where the process went wrong.

Amma Turns Red
J. Jayalalitha's hopes for contesting the elections have been dashed with the rejection of her nomination papers. But this does not deter her from stepping up her campaigning efforts for the AIADMK and assuming an aggressive stance.

Past Tense
The muted reaction of the Government to the massacre of the BSF troops raises many questions. A look at the past skirmishes between the BSF and BDR gives an insight into what led to the heightening of tension at the border.

Coming To Life
With the end of state monopoly, private insurance companies are offering wider risk coverage and better customer relations.

Starting Over
It's been three months since nature shook Gujarat, killing over 30,000 and shattering dreams. Despite government promises and generosity of individuals, rehabilitation is still to touch the lives of many. The story in pictures.

COVER STORY: ADOPTION

Home Returns

By Sayantan Chakravarty

The adoption rulebook is like an ancient tome whose verses nobody cares to remember. So those who are meant to abide by it-the placement agencies, police, juvenile boards-are setting their own rules, and the results are not too happy. Foul play is rampant. The losers in this game are many, among them the lost child, usually no more than five-six years old, and who once had a slim hope of reunion with his parents but finds that lax enforcement has cruelly done him apart, for ever.

There is seldom a rot in a system that hasn't found roots in Delhi. So it is with the adoption system. Between March 2000 and April 2001, thanks to the diligence of some probationary officers in Delhi's Social Welfare Department (SWD), 40 children-including a 10-year-old, written off as abandoned by placement agencies and the police-were restored to their real parents. The figure is important, for every year about 200 children are adopted by foster parents from Delhi's recognised agencies and orphanages.

For these fortunate 40, the agencies had applied for abandonment certificates (the last hurdle to clear before adoption formalities can be initiated) to Delhi's Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB). The board prevented an Andhra-like scam by referring the cases to the SWD's probationary officers. Within weeks, the real parents of all 40 children (see examples in box) were traced; a tearful reunion ensued.

"There is flagrant violation of legal provisions. The agencies are almost trafficking in children," says B.S. Gahlaut, JWB chairman until 1999 and the man who filed a public-interest petition on adoption in the Delhi High Court in January 2000 which led to notices being served to all adoption agencies in the capital.

What does the rulebook say and why were the agencies found wanting? Under the law-Juvenile Justice Act-it is mandatory for the agencies to produce an abandoned child before the state JWB within a period of 24 hours. Every effort, according to guidelines issued by the autonomous Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), must be made to trace the child's parents. "When a recognised Indian agency (there are 80 at present) receives a child, its first responsibility is to trace the biological parents."

Obviously, the agencies in Delhi which received the children never tried to locate the parents. Nor did they produce them before the JWB. The application for the abandonment certificates are usually made 60-90 days after a child is received. The time lapse is enough to "brainwash" a child and ensure that it is unable to recollect crucial details that could lead to his parents. Yet, for all the brainwashing, the probationary officers tracked down the real parents. But as Gahlaut's petition says, "The officials in Delhi managed to succeed against all odds. In most cases, vital time is lost deliberately by the agencies." He contends that if the papers related to such children are furnished within 24 hours, the details can be tallied with the descriptions of children available with the Missing Persons Squad.

That Gahlaut isn't missing the point is clear from the contents of a Delhi Government report on adoption. Prepared last month, it talks about how the better known adoption agencies are patronised by "influential people", implying that these could afford to bend the rules with impunity. They made no efforts to send the children to the state-run Foster Care Home, instead some NGOs were allowed to grab them. "The NGOs get the children placed hurriedly, without detailed inquiries about the natural parents," the report says. Also, aspiring foster parents who are economically weak are blocked out, the inference being that only those willing to pay get to adopt a child.

The Delhi Government's report strikes out at the police, nursing homes, and private hospitals, which are apparently flouting the 1984 landmark Supreme Court judgement (L.K. Pandey vs Union of India) consistently. This is where the CARA can play a far stricter role, even though it says it is at the mercy of the State Welfare Departments for information on malpractice and on the state police for action.

In the case of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, the CARA had to wait for the newspaper reports about the trafficking before it could swing into action as its coordination with the states is far from satisfactory. Not much, therefore, actually gets done. "We are dependent for action and spot reports on the states. We grant licences, but ground monitoring has to be done by the welfare boards," says S. K. Dev Verman, CARA secretary.

The dependence is telling. So, despite large-scale reports of malpractice in adoption from all over the country since 1999, CARA has been able to revoke the licences of only six agencies, three of them in Andhra Pradesh, two in Maharashtra and one in Tamil Nadu. Another six were let off with warnings. All these years, it was oblivious of the goings on in Hyderabad. One of the reasons for its lack of teeth is that CARA is not authorised to grant recognition to agencies which do not involve themselves in inter-country adoptions. So smaller homes, which perhaps flout more rules than recognised ones, remain unmonitored.

The CARA has recognised 80 agencies, four of them in Andhra Pradesh and the rest scattered over Maharashtra (24), Karnataka (10), Delhi (9), Tamil Nadu (8), Kerala (7), West Bengal (5), Gujarat (4), Orissa (3), Pondicherry, Goa (2 each), Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (1 each). Between them these agencies deal with in-country and inter-country adoptions; the latter the more lucrative segment of the adoption business. For its inter-country adoptions (see chart), CARA interfaces with 307 agencies in 27 countries. Between 1995 (when it was set up) and 2000, CARA has handled 16,886 adoptions, 7,315 of them for children who have found foster parents abroad. The trend generally has been for more female adoptions; of the 1,175 adoptions cleared in 2000, 831 were those of a girl child.

Given the happenings in Hyderabad and Delhi's none-too-happy scenario, much needs to be done. CARA, on March 30, wrote to all state Governments seeking stringent action against malpractices, especially facilitators like hospitals and an insouciant police. In-country adoption needs to be encouraged, because when foreigners enter the picture much money changes hands, unofficially. Agrees Asha Das, Union secretary, Ministry of Social Justice: "The lure of money will be there when inter-country adoptions."

Adoption cells must fall in place. At the moment, only Maharashtra has an active one. "A concerted effort to implement the rules is an effective way to keep a check on the adoption agencies," says Madhavi Hegde Karandikar, adoption practitioner in Mumbai. Unless such efforts are made, there will be more losers than winners in the adoption game.

—With Natasha Israni

MetroScape

Focusing On Art
The brief for participants at
"Exhibit 'A' 2001" organised by the
200-member
Photographers'
Guild of India at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai, was clear—no advertisement and portfolio photos. more...

Looking Glass

Delhi Poster:
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Calcutta Pub:
London Pub

Bangalore & Mumbai Rock Concert:
Bryan Adams

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya reflected optimism about winning the state election when he spoke to INDIA TODAY Senior Editor Sumit Mitra at the CPI(M) headquarters in Kolkata, minutes before rushing off for campaigning.
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