MUMBAI: As the final season of the web series 'What The Folks' shows that the lead couple of the story played by Eisha Chopra and Veer Rajwant Singh opts for child adoption and face questions from their family and society, Veer opens up with his opinion on the matter.

According to IANS, Veer said "I think it is high time we as a society should change our attitude and mind conditioning towards children adoption and make it more inclusive because, at the end of the day, it is an individual's choice. There are two things, firstly adopting a child is not a backup that we earlier used to consider. Earlier it was looked as an option for those couples who do not have a child. Also, who is the biological parents of a child was always a talking point. That should be changed because once the child is born, everything boils down to the upbringing that they get."

"From a parents' end, one can give as much love as possible to any child. The problem starts when society singles out children as 'adopted children'. That could hurt the mind of a child even after getting love and affection from the parents."

He further added, "Another point I want to make here on changing attitude is, we should stop thinking that we are doing a favour to a child by adopting and giving a family status. Then that child, when becoming a grown-up man or woman, lives with a bitter feeling that once he/she was unwanted and some family, with generosity, has done some favour by giving a life. No, that is wrong."

The actor said that young couples, on the other hand, should also not face judgment of the society that if they are opting for adoption that means they cannot have their biological child. "I am hopeful that the more we continue the conversation regarding this, we will open our minds and make the place more inclusive for us." The show 'What The Folks : Season 4' is a Dice media original that is also featuring - Anula Navlekar, Nitesh Pandey, Deepika Amin among others.

The true story of an Italian girl with a terrifying past who knew how to get out of hell and who today is a volunteer in Africa among street children. "In their eyes I see the same nightmares I experienced when I was little"

by Marco Trovat

"Street children have invisible scars, their gaze is a mask that hides terrible suffering ... I know that pain all too well." Melissa has caramel skin, a cascade of black hair on her shoulders, a sparkling smile, two eyes as deep as the abyss they have seen.

Born in Colombia 25 years ago, she grew up on the streets of Girardot and Bogotá. "My father, disabled from a stroke, died too soon," she confides. "My mother used to drink and prostitute herself."

Talk like you're telling a movie plot. Instead it is her life and that of her four brothers. “We were left alone, the street was the place of freedom. We had no rules or schedules. Social services opened the doors of the orphanage for us. Then we ended up in a foster family that took care of us with insults and belts ».

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Narender has held five persons guilty in a case involving an interstate child trafficking racket busted by the UT police in 2020.

The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on January 27. Those held guilty are Amarjit Singh, a constable in the Punjab Police and residing in Kharar, Mandeep Singh, a resident of Punjab, ASHA workers Kuldeep Kaur of Patiala and Sarabjit Kaur of Sangrur, and Bhawna, also a resident of Punjab, but putting up in a rented accommodation in Burail.

The police had arrested them near the Airport light point on August 3, 2020.

After finding them prima facie guilty, the court framed charges against them for the commission of the offences punishable under Section 370 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act-2015, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

As per the prosecution, the suspects used to sell a girl child at a price between Rs80,000 and Rs1 lakh and a boy for around Rs4 lakh. The gang was active in Punjab and Delhi.

NAVI MUMBAI: The Nerul Police have arrested a husband-wife duo staying on the pavement outside Nerul railway station for allegedly selling their two newborn girls to two women for Rs 90,000 each in 2019. A complaint was lodged on Wednesday after a legal officer who learnt about the "illegal" adoption alerted the police.

A police officer also said that they have learnt that the parents had similarly sold their newborn son or given him up for adoption earlier.

The two buyer women, aged 60 years and 35 residing in Belapur and Mankhurd have been made accused persons in the case for allegedly illegally adopting the newborns.

API Rajendra Ghevdekar said, "As of now, we have arrested only the accused couple for selling their newborn girls. The two women who purchased the newborns have not been arrested but served a notice due to which they will have to remain present in court when summoned."

Ghevdekar further said, "The incident came to light after the Child Protection Officer of Thane district's Women and Child Development department, Thane, lodged a complaint at Nerul police station on Wednesday. The mother of the newborns revealed the name the buyer from Belapur who had bought the infant for Rs 90,000. The mother claimed that her husband had sold the newborn to the Belapur woman as they needed money and were unable to feed their four other children.

‘Don’t want to see me anymore? See you in court’: Chinese teenager sold at birth by parents sues them for deserting him again after reunion

Liu asked his parents to help him financially but they quickly had a falling-out over money

His parents say they are not well-off and his father even claimed it was his adoptive family’s responsibility to provide for Liu

A young man from northern China whose parents sold him at birth and refused a relationship with him after he recently found them has now vowed to take the case to court.

Liu Xuezhou, a 17-year-old college student in Hebei province, northern China, said on Thursday that he is suing his birth parents for abandoning him twice after reuniting with them a few weeks ago with the help of police.

A former bookkeeper for an international adoption agency who stole more than $1.6 million from her employer and her own family was sentenced Wednesday to four and a half years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez said he considered that the fraud spanned about eight years and affected multiple victims. He said he also took into account the COVID-19 pandemic as a mitigating factor when deciding his sentence.

Melodie Ann Eckland, 56, of Hillsboro pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, filing a false tax return and willfully failing to collect or pay payroll taxes.

She was also ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution.

The illegal scheme was discovered in March 2018, when one of the owners of the Journeys of the Heart adoption and surrogacy agency received a call from a Premier Community Bank representative inquiring about several business checks that had been presented for payment with a signature of the owner that appeared to be forged, according to prosecutors.

Mothers must tell their children the birth father's name, even if the child was adopted. They owe each other support and consideration, according to the judges.

An adopted child has the right to obtain information about the father's identity from the birth mother. The fact that the woman is no longer the legal mother of the child does not preclude the right to information. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe (Az. XII ZB 183/21). The judges ruled that parents and children owe each other support and consideration. The right to information has "very significant constitutional importance".

The case is about a 30-year-old woman who was adopted as a little girl. The biological mother had stated that she could not remember any possible father. She was only 16 years old when her child was born, as the BGH explained. After the adoption, the two did not see each other again until 2003, mediated by the youth welfare office . The daughter sued the court for information about the biological father - initially unsuccessfully before the district court in Stuttgart. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court then ordered the mother to name all the men with whom she had sexual intercourse at the time in question.

On the other hand, she lodged an appeal with the Federal Court of Justice, which has now rejected it. The state is also obliged to protect individuals from withholding available information about their origins. The BGH explained that this is not just about enforcing financial interests. Rather, the right to know one's own descent is strengthened.

It does not matter that the daughter has adoptive parents . The obligation to provide information had already arisen before the adoption. The mother also did not claim that her privacy could be violated.

PORTLAND, Ore.—A Hillsboro, Oregon woman was sentenced to federal prison today for engaging in a multi-year scheme to defraud her employer, a non-profit adoption and surrogacy agency operating in Oregon and Washington, and her extended family.

Melodie Ann Eckland, 56, was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release. She was also ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution.

“Melodie Eckland used her position of trust within a local adoption agency to steal funds intended to help children across the world find loving families. She further stole thousands of dollars from a deceased family member’s estate in a failed attempt to keep her employer from discovering her scheme. Eckland’s selfishness and greed caused great loss and hardship for many people and pushed her employer agency to the brink of insolvency,” said Scott Erik Asphaug, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

“Preying on the trust of her employers, her friends, and her family, Ms. Eckland stole from those who trusted her most. In doing so, Ms. Eckland irreparably hurt local families attempting to do just that – become families,” said Special Agent in Charge Bret Kressin, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS:CI), Seattle Field Office. “Financial and tax crimes are not victimless, and today’s sentence is justice served for Ms. Eckland’s wanton disregard and theft from those around her.”

According to court documents, from at least 2011 and continuing until April 2018, Eckland was employed as a bookkeeper for a local adoption and surrogacy agency. Her duties included maintaining agency books and records, managing payroll, filing employment tax returns, and paying quarterly employment taxes to the IRS. Eckland also provided financial statements to the agency’s board of directors, but did not have signature authority over the organization’s business bank account.

The National Assembly adopted at second reading -pardon the pun-, a law that puts associations on their feet. Firstly because they consider that, under the guise of “modernization”, this law undermines the consent to adoption

of birth parents.

A complex subject

Nothing less. Watching the broadcast of the debates is interesting. We are rediscovering how important laws can be passed by a tiny number of deputies. The polite, yet lively exchanges shed light on a complex subject. To summarize in broad strokes, until now, parents, often a single mother in difficulty, entrusted the ASE with their child, thus giving them access to the status of ward of the State.

In a second step, in another step, this same birth parent gave his consent for this child to be adopted. From now on, the two stages will become one: placement under State guardianship will be accompanied, in the same movement, by the possible opening towards simple or full adoption.

The XII. The civil senate of the Federal Court of Justice has ruled that a biological mother is fundamentally obliged to provide her child with information about the identity of the biological father even after adoption.

The underlying case concerned an applicant born in 1984 who requested information about the person of the biological father from her biological mother, the respondent. At the time of her birth, the respondent, who had grown up in problematic family circumstances, had just turned 16. She only noticed the pregnancy in the seventh month and left the secondary school, where she was in the seventh grade at the time, without a diploma. After the birth, she first lived with the applicant in a mother-child home and later in a shared flat for girls before the applicant was adopted by a married couple. A paternity determination procedure carried out in 1985 was just as unsuccessful as an extrajudicial paternity test with another man. At the end of 2003, mediated by the youth welfare office, the applicant and opponent met. After the applicant had unsuccessfully asked the respondent in March 2018 to name and address the biological father, she has now requested this information in the court proceedings. The district court rejected the application because the respondent was unable to provide information. In response to the applicant's appeal, the Higher Regional Court amended this decision and, in accordance with the application, obliged the respondent to give the applicant the full name and address of all the men who were with the respondent during the legal period of conception.

The Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeal on points of law lodged by the respondent.

The basis for the claim for the requested information is the provision of § 1618 a BGB, according to which parents and children owe each other assistance and consideration. Even if the regulation does not provide for any specific sanctions in the event of a violation, parents and children can mutually develop legal claims from it. The general right of personality entails the constitutional obligation of the state to take appropriate account of the individual's need for protection before the withholding of available information about one's own origins when structuring the legal relationships between the persons concerned. This must be taken into account when interpreting § 1618 a BGB*, especially since the legislature has not expressly standardized a right to information. Unlike the claim of the so-called dummy father against the child's mother for information about the identity of the biological father of the child, for which the Federal Constitutional Court rejected a derivation from the principles of good faith (§ 242 BGB**) and demanded an express legal basis , it is not just a matter of asserting financial interests. Rather, the right to information strengthens a legal position of very considerable constitutional importance, namely the right to know one's own descent.

The fact that the respondent is no longer the legal mother of the applicant due to the adoption of the applicant and the expiration of the legal parent-child relationship resulting from Section 1755 (1) sentence 1 BGB due to adoption does not conflict with the claim. Because the obligation to provide information between the child and the mother arose before the adoption. If one were to see this differently, adoption would, with regard to the right to know one's parentage, lead to an unjustified disadvantage compared to children whose legal parent-child relationship with their biological mother continues. In the present case, the Respondent has not presented any significant considerations that speak against her obligation to provide information, but on the contrary at no time denied that the claimant's right to information exists in principle. Thus, she did not invoke specific concerns that could lead to denying the existence of the right to information with regard to her right to respect for her private and intimate sphere, which is also protected under constitutional law.