Women and adopted children demand Westminster follows example of Wales and Scotland

Women forced to give up their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s are stepping up pressure on the UK government to issue a formal apology following the lead of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

The women and their adopted children are urging MPs to demand the government act on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee that called for a retrospective public apology for the violation of human rights and psychological trauma.

The Labour party is also expected to come under pressure to commit to issuing a formal apology should it win the next general election.

An estimated 185,000 women, most of them unmarried teenagers at the time, were coerced into having their babies adopted between 1949 and 1976. Many were sent to mother and baby homes run by state, religious or charitable bodies, where they were made to feel shame and guilt and some were required to do menial labour.

Malagasy police officers in charge of the fight against cybercrime have dismantled a network selling young children. A couple, a relative and a doctor were arrested and remanded in custody. They were charged with human trafficking by a person in authority.

This message circulating on Facebook: "For those who want to adopt a child and justify their resources, we have some. You should come see us" , was sent to the police by a whistleblower.

After several days of investigations, specialists in the fight against cybercrime have managed to unmask the authors of this announcement, L'Express de Madagascar tells us .

At the end of last week, the investigators arrested a couple and a doctor. The latter, counts among his acquaintances the mother, of the young woman who sells "her infants". The practitioner would have written the babies' false birth certificates at his request. The seller's mother was also arrested.

In search of accomplices

The largest group campaigning on behalf of NI survivors of mother-and-baby homes is pulling out of meetings with the Executive's survivors' forum.

Birth Mothers and their Children emailed the secretary of state, the head of the NI Civil Service and a number of political representatives.

It said it had become "disenfranchised" with the lack of a statutory inquiry into the institutions.

Attending forum meetings had caused further upset to its members, it added.

The group expressed frustration about the lack of a redress scheme 18 months after a truth and recovery report was published.

SURAT: A girl abandoned by her biological parents got a new lease of life when a childless couple from the city adopted her when she was three months old.

But the girl, who is now nearing 14 and studying in Class 9, became a victim of sexual abuse with the perpetrators being her adoptive father, his younger brother, and his three nephews. The ordeal of the teenager, which began in 2021, was exposed by her adoptive mother who witnessed her husband abusing her on Friday.

She rescued the girl and wnet to Adajan police station to lodge a complaint against her 46-year-old husband, his younger brother (41), his elder brother's son (24), younger brother's son (22), and sister-in-law's 16-year-old son.

Police arrested four people including adoptive father and his brother and two nephews.

It all began in 2021, when the accused took her to the first floor of their house and raped her. She was subjected to sexual abuse multiple times by the five accused. The survivor told police that she did not complain earlier as her father and others threatened to kill her or thrash her.

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Dr Sangeeta along with her husband Dr Waliul Islam were accused of abusing their adopted minor daughter. Meanwhile, Dr Sangeeta was on the run and hiding in a house at Umsning in Meghalaya’s Ribhoi. However, the police were able to track her down and brought her to the Paltam Bazar police station at night.

Dr. Waliul, Sangeeta's husband, is being held by the police for five days in connection with the case. In the meantime, Lakshmi Rai, the caretaker who was also allegedly involved in the case, has been taken into custody by the court.

The doctor couple duo are accused for their alleged involvement in a child abuse case and the matter came to light after child rights activist Miguel Das Queah took to social media and informed about the incident.

By The Editorial Board •  17 May 2023, 10:00AM

The Samoan adoption scam was a story that rocked the nation some 14-16 years ago when it emerged that Samoan children were illegally taken from their families by an American adoption agency and sent to the U.S.

Falealili bus lost control, says passenger

Have you ever tried to go back (in your thoughts) and listen to yourself, to what you really felt growing up as an adoptee?

When I try to go back in time like that, I realise I have so many feelings and thoughts I never dared to express. I still carry those feelings inside of me.

As a transracial, intercountry adoptee growing up in Sweden during 1970-1980, I feel that I was part of an experiment. Children from countries all over the world were placed in Swedish families and we were supposed to be like a “clean slate”, as if our life stories started at the airport in Sweden.

My background was never a secret and I was allowed to read my documents from Chile. But I never felt that I could talk about my feelings and thoughts about my first mom. I held so much inside and was never asked to express anything regarding my feelings or thoughts. I couldn’t understand why I was in Sweden, why I wasn’t with my mom and my people in Chile. I felt so unwanted and not loved.

I wrote a letter to my mom as if I was 7 years old. I don’t know why I did it, but I wrote the letter in Spanish.

GUWAHATI: An FIR was filed against Walliul Islam and Sangita Dutta on the grounds of suspected child abuse

of their adopted 3-year-old daughter at the Paltan Bazaar police station on May 5.

The complainant alleged that the couple tortured and harassed their adopted daughter by tying her up on the

terrace of the building in the intense heat purposefully without food or water, with an alleged intent to cause

harm or even kill the child.

The hospital doctors informed that they are waiting for collector P Kumaravel Pandian to form a committee to decide the future of the girl, he said.

VELLORE, CHENNAI: Ten couples have expressed willingness to adopt the child, who was abandoned at the Katpadi railway station, social activist and government vet Dr Ravi Shankar said Friday.

Shankar visited the child at the Vellore government medical college hospital. Two women constables were also in attendance at the venue, he added.

The infant, who was found at the railway station on Thursday, was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital immediately for a thorough check-up. A woman carrying the baby had asked an old age couple to hold the girl as she wanted to go to the toilet. The couple informed the railway police, when the woman did not turn up.

Uploading the girl’s photo on social media, Shankar said, “I received ten phone calls from couples in and around Vellore who expressed willingness to adopt the girl child legally.”

Under the Maternity Benefit Act, there is no provision for maternity leave for a mother who is adopting an abandoned, orphaned, or foster child who is older than three months.

By Kanu Sarda: For Karnataka-based Hamsaanandini Nanduri, an adoptive mother since 2017, bringing up her two young children was an uphill task because of the discriminatory provisions under the Maternity Benefit Act.

When Hamsaanandini went for adoption through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), she was given the option of adopting two children who were siblings and CARA did not want them to be separated. She readily agreed to adopt the four-and-half-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother.