It took Sandip Soparrkar four years to convince orphanages, and later the court, to grant him permission to adopt a child because he was unmarried. But Soparrkar remained determined. In 2007, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer brought home a little boy, becoming the first single man to adopt a child in India. In 2021, he became the first single father to adopt a second child when he took charge of a nine-year-old with special needs. It is believed Soparrkar inspired his student Madonna to adopt an Indian baby. He spoke to Neha Bhayana about his boys, his parenting rules and adoption
What made you want to adopt?
 

It was just something I always wanted to do since I was a teenager. There are adoption cases in my family. A few of my cousin sisters have been adopted. My favourite sister is an adopted child. When I was young, I thought I would do it when I am financially and emotionally stronger. I just took that step very naturally without thinking because I love children. I didn’t even know that I would be the first single man to adopt till it came out in the news.

You had to fight a long battle …

There was a four-year-long struggle because there were no rules, or rather there were some rules but they had never been exercised by anybody. The adoption law is strange in so many ways. A woman above 18 can adopt a child, but a man needs to be above 30 to adopt. Moreover, to be considered fit for adoption, a man has to submit proof of his financial standing whereas a woman need not. I can’t say whether this is right or wrong, but I find it unfair because it took me four years to fight for the right to adopt. I had gone to so many orphanages but none even considered me. I was asked why I should get a child when a couple or single woman could take him. I was even questioned about my affairs which is odd because that has nothing to do with my ability to be a good parent. I am grateful to the orphanage Bal Anand for standing by me and giving me my son. I got Arjun home on October 3, 2007. We celebrate this day every year as his homecoming birthday.

When did you first meet Arjun?

I remember one day, suddenly, Madhavi Mhatre from Bal Anand, called me and asked me to come to meet a child. I said ‘Ma’am, I am not ready’. She said, ‘You have been waiting for four years. Of course, you are ready.’ I was so nervous. I was seated when the door opened and a little boy, just over a year old, crawled in and gave me the toy car which was in his hand. That was it. I fell in love. Imagine a child who lived in an orphanage and did not have any toys that belonged to him exclusively, still chose to give me his car. This showed that he wanted to be with me. This was the best moment of my life.

How did you handle diaper duty?

It took Sandip Soparrkar four years to convince orphanages, and later the court, to grant him permission to adopt a child because he was unmarried. But Soparrkar remained determined. In 2007, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer brought home a little boy, becoming the first single man to adopt a child in India. In 2021, he became the first single father to adopt a second child when he took charge of a nine-year-old with special needs. It is believed Soparrkar inspired his student Madonna to adopt an Indian baby. He spoke to Neha Bhayana about his boys, his parenting rules and adoption
What made you want to adopt?
 

KOCHI: Kerala High Court has orally observed that even children aged four and five are at risk with predators around. The remark was made when the petition of a quinquagenarian couple seeking permission to return their adopted child and annul the adoption came up for hearing. 

“Where do I send her?” said Justice Devan Ramachandran, adding, “She is a woman now. Even kids aged four and five are at risk, how can an 18-year-old live peacefully.” 

The court also examined the report filed by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and said the child is not against her adopted parents. The counsel for the couple said she wanted to return to the Nishkam Seva Ashram, an institution under the Punjab government, from where she was adopted. “You are wrong. Go through the DLSA report,” the court replied. 

In a counter affidavit, the Thiruvananthapuram district collector informed the court that the couple adopted the child based on the order issued by the Ludhiana guardian judge, and the application for annulment shall be filed in the court which issued the order permitting adoption.

The HC said the couple became depressed after the untimely death of their 23-year-old son.

Because participating adoptees were already adults, malpractice had generally occurred more than 20 years ago, especially prior to their adoption in the country of origin and/or during the adoption process. The adoptees often discovered them later in life, for example during searches. 

The adoptees indicated that malpractice in intercountry adoption had a major impact on their emotional well-being. It often caused long-term problems in multiple areas, especially in the areas of trauma, identity development and relationships. For example, problems with self-esteem, attachment, fear of abandonment and grief were mentioned. It also had an effect on their own parenting. 

No words for it

Several adoptees indicated that it was very difficult to be heard. Because malpractice in adoption did not fit the positive story surrounding adoption, this was often not recognized in society. The narrative that the adoptee should be grateful often overshadowed the complex and ambivalent experiences that adoptees struggled with. This placed an additional burden on the adoptees. They sometimes could not understand why they had emotional and physical reactions, there was no recognition and no language to understand this and interpret their own experiences. Sometimes the discovery of malpractice also caused tension within the adoptive family, where it could lead to the adoptive parents feeling guilty or to conflict. 

Andhra Pradesh’s childcare institutions, meant to be sanctuaries for vulnerable minors, are grappling with an unsettling reality. The Hindu finds that recent incidents expose the compromised safety of children post-rescue, underscored by abuse, negligence, and the leaking of sensitive data 

Two years ago, Rani (name changed to protect identity), now 15, lost her mother to an illness. Left in the care of her father, a private company employee, Rani and her younger brother found themselves neglected and unsupported. In September this year, family members sought to marry off the class 9 student. However, timely intervention by an NGO and the police in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh thwarted the child marriage bid. Following the rescue, Rani was shifted to a care home in Vijayawada, through the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in the district. Once again, she finds herself in a distressing situation. “The care home staff collected personal information about me and later leaked it,” she says. This breach of trust ironically came to light on the International Day of the Girl Child on October 11. 

KarlsruheÜble Nachrede gegen Bundestagsabgeordneten - Frau muss ins Gefängnis

red/dpa 16.11.2023 - 13:25 Uhr

Das Urteil gegen die Frau ist rechtskräftig. (Symbolbild) Foto: dpa/Peter Steffen

Eine 51 Jahre alte Frau muss sieben Monate ins Gefängnis, weil sie behauptet hatte, dass die Frau eines CDU-Bundestagsabgeordneten in Rumänien einen illegalen Kinderhandel betreibe. Die Einzelheiten.

As a generation of Central Asian adoptees enter adulthood in the United States, their personal quests for identity sit side-by-side with discussions of decolonization.

“Really? From here? You are so lucky…” The market seller’s maternal instincts seemed to overtake all intentions of haggling as she dropped several souvenirs into my hands and looked at me with amazement and pride. A Kazakhstan-born orphan, adopted to German and American parents, back here in Kazakhstan? She said now she knows fate exists.

It’s a familiar story for many adoptees. Answering the question “Where are you from?” is complex, and can leave people so bewildered that they cannot hide their intrigue and shock. Central Asian adoptees live in the space between nations and, through their identities, serve as diplomats to family, friends, and colleagues, a living reminder of the reality that as distant as Central Asia is from the United States, these two worlds are closer than we think.  

The U.S. Department of State has recorded 6,801 adoptions from the five Central Asian republics to the U.S. since 1999, with 94 percent coming from Kazakhstan and 88 percent of total adoptions occurring between the years 1999 to 2008. The marked decline in adoptions from Central Asia is in line with international trends as inter-country adoption becomes more expensive and pressure grows from international organizations and national governments. Inter-country adoption is no longer a preferred solution for orphaned children, with governments and communities shifting focus to addressing, domestically, the issues that lead to orphaned children, like poverty and limited resources for parents of children with disabilities.

In Central Asia, the conversation is no different. A few accredited U.S. adoption service providers still operate programs in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, but inter-country adoptions are lengthy and largely isolated to children with disabilities or severe medical issues, for whom adoption provides a pathway to family-based care. 

The Bombay High Court made the remark while granting bail to a person accused of raping a minor girl and impregnating her.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said conducting a DNA test on the child of a rape victim after adoption would not be in best interest of the kid, PTI reported. The Bombay HC, while granting bail to a person accused of raping a minor girl and impregnating her, said, "It is pertinent to note that in the factual situation since the child is given in adoption, the DNA test of the said child may not be in the interest of the child and future of the child."

The 17-year-old rape victim gave birth to a child and later put up the baby for adoption. A single bench of Justice GA Sanap sought to  know from the police if any DNA test had been conducted on the child.

The police informed the court that the child was put up for adoption right after birth. Police also said the institution concerned had refused to disclose the identity of the adoptive parents. The court observed that the institution's stand was reasonable.

In his bail petition, the man claimed that it was a consensual relationship and the victim, though minor, had an understanding of the same. However, the case lodged with the police said the accused forcibly had intercourse with the victim and impregnated her. 

Blog written by Team Adoption of SAPPersonal Injury Lawyers

Personal injury lawyers who will go to court for you if necessary. Largest personal injury law firm in the Netherlands. Click here for free advice.

, consisting of: Saskia de Groot, Mark de Hek and Sharon Soeltan
 

Since the 1970s, more than forty thousand children in the Netherlands have been adopted from abroad. Around the same time, the first reports of adoption abuse appeared in the media. About the forgery of documents, the exploitation of poverty among birth mothers and the relinquishment of children for payment or under duress. However distressing the signals may be, they do not lead to critical reflection in the public and political debate, let alone a reconsideration of the system of intercountry adoption.

A 51-year-old woman from the Enz district has been sentenced to prison for defamation of Pforzheim Member of the Bundestag Gunther Krichbaum and his wife Dr. Oana Krichbaum. By decision of November 15, 2023, the 1st Criminal Senate of the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court dismissed as unfounded the defendant's appeal against a judgment of the Pforzheim Criminal Division of the Karlsruhe Regional Court dated March 8, 2023. This judgment sentenced the defendant to a total of seven months' imprisonment, one month of which is considered served due to procedural delays contrary to the rule of law.

According to the findings of the Regional Court, the defendant had alleged in numerous Facebook posts and in emails to various recipients, including newspaper editorial staff and members of state and federal parliaments, that Dr. Oana Krichbaum had been involved in illegal child trafficking in Romania and that Gunther Krichbaum had attempted to cover this up by exploiting his political office. After initially pursuing civil action against the defendant, the Krichbaum couple filed a criminal complaint on April 23, 2018, regarding three Facebook posts published by the defendant on February 13, February 26, and March 26, 2018, all of which referred to Dr. Oana Krichbaum and, in two cases, to Gunter Krichbaum. The defendant continued to make similar defamatory allegations, even in her final statement at the appeal hearing before the Regional Court. In its judgment, the Regional Court also found that the defendants’ allegations were neither demonstrably true nor covered by freedom of expression or other legitimate interests of the defendants.

The Karlsruhe Regional Court sentenced the defendant to six months' imprisonment each for the three offenses mentioned in 2018, which are the sole subject of these proceedings, and combined these individual sentences into a total prison sentence of seven months. The Regional Court declared one month of this sentence to have already been served due to a procedural delay that occurred during the appeal proceedings, which violated the rule of law. The Regional Court did not suspend the execution of the total prison sentence because it did not consider the defendant to have a positive criminal prognosis, as neither the civil proceedings nor the previous criminal proceedings had deterred her from continuing to make defamatory allegations about the Krichbaum couple.

In the appeal proceedings, the First Criminal Senate of the Higher Regional Court had to examine both the content of the Regional Court's written reasons for the judgment and – to the extent challenged by the defendants' defense – the proceedings before the Regional Court for legal errors that may have affected the decision. However, the Senate did not identify any such legal errors on which the Regional Court's judgment was based. In particular, it did not consider the offenses to be time-barred and did not object to the defense's rejection of applications for auxiliary evidence. The fact that a witness's email was read out at the main hearing instead of her being questioned clearly had no effect on the content of the Regional Court's judgment. The Regional Court correctly considered the defendants' fundamental right to freedom of expression. The Regional Court's sentencing – including the failure to grant a suspended sentence – is also not objectionable under the law of appeal.

No further appeal is available. The Karlsruhe Regional Court's ruling is now final.

Despite Chandigarh administration’s January notification to make child adoption easier, only 11 children adopted in 10 months

It’s been almost a year since the UT administration notified the Chandigarh Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Amendment Rules, 2023, to accelerate the adoption process. Yet, the list of people hoping to adopt a child remains long.

Recently, the Supreme Court had raised serious concerns over the “grave” delay in the process of adoption of children and asked the Centre why no steps were being taken to simplify the process. (HT File)

Through the January notification, the district magistrate was given the authority to issue adoption orders that were previously under the ambit of district courts, thereby speeding up the process in such cases, be it intra-country, inter-country, relative or step parent adoption.

But as of October end, only 11 of the 51 adoption hopefuls have been able to bring a child home. Meanwhile, the wait for remaining 40 applicants, which has already drawn out for over two years, continues to grow longer.