Berhampur: A three-month-old baby girl found her home after a Koraput-based couple legally adopted her, two months after being surrendered by her unwed mother in Gajapati district's R.Udayagiri block. 

In a brief ceremony held at Paralakhemundi on Wednesday, Gajapati collector Bijay Chandra Dash officially handed over the infant to the couple, following the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) guidelines. The couple, who run a business in Kolkata, had waited nearly three years for this moment after registering with CARA, an autonomous statutory body under the ministry of women and child welfare. 

"The baby was surrendered to the district administration when she was just 20 days old, as her unwed mother was unable to care for her," said district child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathy, who was present at the ceremony along with officials from the child care home where the infant had been provided shelter. 

Several adoptive families criticize the Family Court for not preparing them for the risk of repeated lawsuits against the children's biological parents.

Imagine that you adopt a child. A child that you have to provide care and security for, while also having to hold meetings in the Family Court, hire a lawyer and conduct legal proceedings because the child's biological parents want visitation.

As TV2 ØST has previously reported , this is the situation of a woman from Zealand who in 2023 adopted a forcibly adopted Danish child. 

"I never imagined that I would have contact with the legal system and that I would have to hire a lawyer. I've never done that before," says Julie. 

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Following his acquittal in February in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the UDF and then the Modem, the prosecution lodged an appeal.

Justice has not yet completely finished with François Bayrou, appointed Prime Minister this Friday by the President of the Republic, replacing Michel Barnier.

On February 5, the Paris Criminal Court acquitted the 73-year-old president of the Modem in the European parliamentary assistants case , "giving the benefit of the doubt ." Considering that he was guilty of acts that "undermined the values ​​of probity and exemplarity that he promotes ," the prosecution had requested a thirty-month suspended prison sentence , a 70,000 euro fine and a three-year suspended ineligibility sentence for complicity, by instigation, in the misappropriation of European public funds. The court therefore did not follow his lead.

Two other defendants – Stéphane Thérou and Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret – were also acquitted, while the eight others, including five former MEPs, were sentenced to suspended prison sentences of ten to eighteen months, fines of €10,000 to €50,000 and a two-year suspended ineligibility period. The UDF (now MoDem) was sentenced to a fine of €150,000, of which €100,000 was firm, and the MoDem to €350,000, of which €300,000 was firm.

HYDERABAD: Legal red flags have prompted a district child welfare committee in Telangana tasked with deciding the future of 15 "rescued" children to drop its plan to organise a bonding exercise between them and the adoptive parents they were separated from six months ago, based on a probe into a trafficking ring.

The Medchal Malkajgiri Child Welfare Committee has decided that the kids, between seven months and four years old, will remain in govt shelters till they are put up for legal adoption. They will undergo medical examination within a month before being made "free for legal adoption" in accordance with the guidelines of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

TOI reported on Dec 7 about legal and behavioural experts questioning the bonding exercise that could potentially give the children back to the couples who allegedly paid Rs 5-8 lakh each to child traffickers in Delhi and Pune.

Acknowledging that the proposed bonding exercise would have set a bad precedent, a representative of the Medchal Malkajgiri district child protection office said, "Once declared free for adoption, anyone seeking to adopt can do so under CARA's regulations. Prospective adoptive parents must meet specific age criteria, have a stable marital relationship if adopting as a couple, demonstrate financial stability, good health, and the ability to provide a nurturing environment. Also, parents do not get to choose the child."

State child welfare committee director Nirmala Kanthi said allowing the bonding exercise could have complicated future cases, effectively validating illegal adoptions. "These children deserve a secure, legal family environment. Efforts are being expedited to ensure they find safe and permanent homes through legal means."

The decision to scrap the bonding exercise has upset the families that had adopted the allegedly trafficked kids.

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Hyderabad: The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Medchal-Malkajgiri district in Telangana has declared 15 children who were rescued by police from a child-selling racket busted earlier this year as 'Legally Free for Adoption (LFA)'.

Official sources on Wednesday said the Committee decided the children to be LFA as per Section 38 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 as their biological parents could not be traced.

The High Court had on November 28 directed the CWC to pass an order in terms of Section 37 (orders regarding a child in need of care and protection) of the Act within two weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of its order.

Section 38 of the Act stipulates that the Committee, in case of an orphan and abandoned child, shall make all efforts to trace the parents or guardians of the child and on completion of such inquiry, if it is established that the child is either an orphan having no one to take care, or abandoned, the Committee shall declare the child legally free for adoption.

The court also gave directions to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to decide within four weeks on the applications filed by some of the "adoptive parents" seeking adoption of the children.

Student unions demand that children be handed over to the adopted parents

Hyderabad: Foster parents, who adopted nine of the 16 rescued children in May and are engaged in a legal battle to claim rights to meet their children at Sishu Vihar, have now decided to take on the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which they blame for the turbulence they have been undergoing for the last six months.

Many of those foster parents met representatives of Telangana Samag Student Unions and other student unions on Wednesday. They had stood in their support seeking justice and getting back their children as per the directions of the High Court.

They met the media for the time. They included Karri Deavendra and his wife Durgabhavani; Dasari Anil Kumar and his wife Bezawads Sathitya; B. Santosh and his wife B. Jagdeshaari; and Sowala Mallesh and his wife Sawalla Sruthi, who all either belong to Telangana or Andhra Pradesh.

They took exception to not being given an opportunity to meet the children at Sishu Vihar, where they are presently put up.

For a long time, it was thought that adoption from abroad was good for the intended parents and for the child, but from 2030 it will no longer be allowed. Theatre maker José Montoya (45), who was adopted from Colombia, never believed in the 'adoption fairy tale'. 'The idea that a child in a 'third world country' is worse off than here is racist.'

“Many adopted people hear their whole lives that they should just be grateful and not complain,” says theater maker and visual artist José Montoya (45). Adoption is a recurring theme in his theater work. In 2021, he made the performance To be of never been about his own adoption story. And last November, together with four other program makers with a history of adoption, he organized the cultural stage Ver Van Hier in Rotterdam, to let 'a different voice' be heard about intercountry adoption. “We debunk the adoption fairy tale.”

Intercountry adoption, abuses and prohibition

Since 1956, it has been possible to adopt a child from the Netherlands or Europe in the Netherlands. In 1974, it also became possible to adopt a child from outside Europe, which soon concerned the vast majority of adoptions. Between 1974 and 2023, more than 42,000 children were adopted from abroad, of whom 406 in the last five years ( CBS and FIOM ).

As of 2030, it will no longer be possible to adopt children from abroad. Parents now have six years to complete current adoption procedures, writes State Secretary Teun Struycken in a letter to the House of Representatives. In the NOS Radio 1 Journaal, a conversation with Reinout van Haperen of the National Association of Adoptive Families.

Van Haperen would like to start the conversation with something positive: "The tone of the letter is really much better than that of Mr. Struycken's predecessors." But, he continues: "What we find very sad is that the interests of the children are not taken into account at all in this weighing of interests."

Permanent home situation

Adoption is primarily a child protection measure, Van Haperen argues. "You want children to grow up in their country of origin, that's the ultimate goal. But if that's not possible, a permanent home situation is more important than growing up in their country of origin." He believes that the interests of children should come first. That parents should be sought for children, instead of the other way around.