Marilyn Rulyancich's baby was taken from her at birth, but she never gave up hope of finding her — hatching an audacious undercover plot to realise her dream.

Most mothers would do anything to be at their daughter's wedding.

Marilyn Rulyancich was no different — except she had never met her daughter.

Roelie Post

Feb 17, 2023, 4:38?PM (10 days ago)

to SAKKERS

Na ruggespraak met het Huis voor de Klokkenluider kan ik u meedelen dat die strekking zoals u die begrijpt, dat het Huis voor de Klokkenluiders niet overgegaan is tot erkenning van de klokkenluidersstatus, onjuist is:

"De afdeling Advies van het Huis is op basis van de door mevrouw Post aangeleverde

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In India, children who can be fostered have to be above the age of six years living in child care institutions and having “unfit guardians”.

Doing away with the rule that limited foster care to married couples, the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry has now permitted single individuals — including those who are unmarried, widowed, divorced, or legally separated — aged 35 to 60 years, to foster a child and adopt after two years, according to the recently released revised Model Foster Care Guidelines. However, while a single woman can foster and eventually adopt a child of any gender, a man can only do so for male children. Previously, under the 2016 Model Foster Care Guidelines, only married couples, referred to as “both spouses” in old documents, were permitted to foster a child.

Fostering is an arrangement in which a child temporarily lives with either extended family or unrelated individuals. In India, children who can be fostered have to be above the age of six years living in child care institutions and having “unfit guardians”. Minors who are placed in the category of “hard to place or children having special needs” can also be fostered.

Apart from opening up fostering to any person “irrespective of their marital status (single/unmarried/widow/divorcee/legally separated)” and whether or not they “have biological son or daughter”, the revised guidelines have also allowed the foster parent to adopt a child after she has been in her foster care for minimum of two years, as opposed to five years earlier.

In case of married couples who want to foster, the new guidelines state that “no child shall be given in foster care to a couple/spouse” unless they have had a “stable marital relationship of two years”. Earlier, there was no such caveat for couples.

Intercountry Adoption: Regulatory Changes to Accreditation and Approval Regulations in Intercountry Adoption

New State Department ruling makes inter-country adoption harder for prospective parents | Opinion

As an adoptee during China’s one-child policy, I’ve always understood and appreciated the value that international adoption can bring, especially as a response to child welfare crises and changing politics across the globe.

Unfortunately, new regulations from the Department of State on inter-country adoption impose significant burdens on parents trying to provide homes for vulnerable children overseas.

Opinion

This comes at an inopportune time when inter-country adoptions are already at an all-time low. International adoptions declined by 93% from 2004 to 2022. A 2023 State Department report showed that there were only 1,275 intercountry adoptions, down from 1,517 the year prior. Although many factors contribute to this drop, it is clear that the government is not establishing partnerships and pathways to facilitate adoption.

In the financial year 2021-22, 29,331 children were covered by non-institutional care. This number increased to 62,675 in 2022-23 and to 1,21,861 in 2023-24, it stated

The number of children in non-institutional care, including those in foster care, has increased fourfold between 2021-22 and 2023-24, according to government data.

In the financial year 2021-22, 29,331 children were covered by non-institutional care. This number increased to 62,675 in 2022-23 and to 1,21,861 in 2023-24, it stated.

In a recent letter to states and Union Territories (UTs), the women and child development (WCD) ministry said this rise may be because of the government's initiatives in strengthening family-based care to all children in difficult circumstances.

Mothers and fathers who had their newborn babies ripped from them at birth should be compensated for the ongoing trauma caused by Western Australia's historical forced adoption practices, a parliamentary inquiry recommends.

Unmarried pregnant women were coerced into putting their babies up for adoption against their will and had information withheld with pressure also on fathers and grandparents, the Legislative Council inquiry found.

Its report, tabled on Thursday, revealed many women staying in private institutions leading up to their births were forced into unpaid work, psychologically abused and kept isolated.

"Women were subjected to coercive messaging that they were not fit to parent and that their children would be better off brought up by others," the report said.

"Some were told that if they loved their child, they would give it up."

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) recently ordered the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), a statutory body responsible for regulating and monitoring adoptions, to let an issueless couple adopt a newborn girl, who was “illegally sold” to them eight months ago by her birth mother

The order came on a petition filed by the childless couple after the Mumbai police crime branch took away the child during an investigation into an alleged child trafficking racket and on order of the Child Welfare Committee, the baby girl was kept in a children’s home in Mumbai.

The division bench of justice Bharati Dangre and justice Manjusha Deshpande asked CARA to allow the couple to adopt the child as per prevailing procedure, as the couple had “nurtured the baby girl for around eight months” since she was just six-day-old.

“We prima-facie express that upon the child being declared as fit for adoption, CARA, deviating from its faceless procedure, can consider the fitness of the Petitioners to be adoptive parents and after following the regulations prescribed by CARA, the Petitioners shall adopt the girl child since they already have cared for her for the past 8 months,” said the bench.

The petitioners claimed they had adopted the girl child with the help of one Uma Revla, who informed them that the 3-day-old girl was available for adoption as her mother expressed unwillingness to maintain the child.

I feel a deep respect for biological moms. But I am also relieved to have not gone through the trials and tribulations of one

Written by Smita Pranav Kothari

It’s 9:48 pm. As I put my eight-month-old to bed, my lower back and frozen shoulders sigh: One more day down. I wonder why everyone says, “They grow up too fast!”.

I go over my mental to-do list for the day to gauge how I fared with the baby:
Protein: Check
Fruits and vegetables: Check
Supplements: Check
Learning and development through toys and activities: Check
Exposure to nature and socialising through stroller walk: Check
Exposure to music by playing baby Mozart and Indian devotional songs: Check
Diaper-free time: Check

However, there’s always room to learn, and do more and better when it comes to a baby. So, I open a moms’ group on WhatsApp meant for discussions about newborn to about six-month-old babies. On this group, I have found recommendations for the best wet wipe, inquired about others’ experiences in dealing with their children’s constipation, got educated about products like steriliser bags which I didn’t know about, and more. This group (and others on social media) consists of moms. Period. They could be mothers through the biological route or adoption or surrogacy. There is no mention as to which mom is an adoptive parent and hence no way to know otherwise. Moms are moms. Except that I learnt our trials and tribulations are very different.