Children failed by the institutions of care are subjected to a system that sets them up for failure

Santosh was only 14 years old when 3 policemen barged into his house in Delhi's north district. The chaos, the screaming, the image of his elder brother Ravi (17) being dragged by the collar escaped his comprehension. All he felt was fear, as he hid behind his mother who was begging the police to let go of her son.

While two policemen dragged Ravi out of the house, one stayed behind. Few minutes later, a voice called out - "woh doosre ko bhi le aa" (bring the other one also). His mother could not protect Santosh; he followed his brother's fate. In that moment, he ceased to be a "child'; he became a "juvenile" - a "child in conflict with law".

Santosh and Ravi were taken to a police station where they were kept for two days. In those 48 hours, two children, caught in the net of India's criminal legal system for an alleged crime, were ripped off the virtues of their childhood. They were physically and psychologically assaulted, their lives altered, their conscience scarred, for reasons they never understood.

The Quint interviewed many children like Santosh and Ravi in an attempt to document the pains of navigating our criminal justice system as "children in conflict with law". We also interviewed lawyers who represent such children before juvenile courts, as well as child rights activists. We also visited juvenile homes in Delhi to grasp the perils of institutional response to juvenile delinquency.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man who lost custody of his newborn son, only to have an appellate court reverse termination of his parental rights, is suing Catholic Charities West Michigan for placing the child with an adoptive family.

The child was put up for adoption shortly after birth three years ago.

The lawsuit alleges Catholic Charities committed fraud and failed to look for the biological father, Peter Kruithoff. In separate proceedings, a Kalamazoo County judge terminated his parental rights while an Ottawa County judge awarded him custody.

“The conduct of Defendants was extreme and outrageous and beyond the bounds of what is acceptable in civilized society,” attorneys John Moritz and Michael Villar wrote in the lawsuit.

They had originally filed the lawsuit in Ottawa County Circuit Court but Catholic Charities asked that it be moved to federal court.

Nearly three hundred Korean adoptees abroad, including eleven from Belgium, are going to court in Seoul. They are suing that their adoption was fraudulently committed.

Sixteen years ago, Yung Fierens (46) met her first parents, two sisters and a brother, while visiting South Korea. 'I knocked on the door of the adoption service and was shown my original file,' she says. 'It contained all the information about my origin. Surprising, because my adoption file in Belgium didn't contain them.'

Later, when she requested a copy, Fierens was lied to that the original file did not exist. 'I was one of the first to search. Last month I was in Seoul again, this time with a friend who wants to find her first mother. We're sure the Korean government kept that record, it did in almost all cases. But she doesn't want to release them anymore. She let almost all the children leave under the guise of being orphaned or abandoned.'

'Accidentally discovered that there are also images of our suffering'

Nearly 300 Korean adoptees from around the world yesterday filed a complaint with the Seoul Reconciliation and Truth Commission over past fraudulent adoption practices. Among them also Fierens and ten other Belgians. The initiative comes from Danish fellow sufferers.

Between the 1960s and the 1990s, more than twenty thousand Chilean children were adopted and taken abroad by French, Italian, American, Belgian and even Canadian families. Adoption encouraged by the dictatorship of General Pinochet. But years later, voices began to be raised in Chile: several thousand biological mothers had in fact never agreed to have their babies given up for adoption. RFI went to meet these women in Chile, but also children adopted in France, who are looking for their origins.

From our correspondent in Chile,

1,200 kilometers south of Santiago, on the island of Chiloé, Ruth Huisca puts wood in the stove which warms the main room, in the middle of the southern winter. This domestic worker, aged around fifty, welcomes us in a red house with the typical architecture of the island, with its facade covered in wooden shingles.

In the mid-1980s, Ruth lived and worked in Osorno, in the south of the country. She became pregnant by her boyfriend when she was 17, and he was 16. He moved to another town, and Ruth gave birth to a baby girl alone at the Osorno hospital. But she doesn't dare return to her home in the countryside. “  At the time, I couldn't have come back to my grandparents with a baby. They would have thrown me out, they would have given me a beating. So I was afraid to tell them I was pregnant. And I looked for a pension for my daughter, I entrusted her to a lady I trusted.  »

Hyderabad: A 68-year-old French woman who went missing three days

ago was found murdered in bushes at Himayatsagar on Saturday. Later in

the day, police arrested three persons, including the victim’s adopted

daughter, in the murder case.

On Thursday, Cyberabad police received a complaint that Marie Christine,

The Advisory Committee of the VCA consists of:

Representatives of adoptees and adoptive parents.

Representatives of the facilities working in the areas of responsibility of the VCA (these are the Support Center for Adoption, services for social research, adoption services).

Representatives of the employees of those facilities.

Independent experts.

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5 year old girl from Hungary : approval matching 06/08/2021

7 year old boy from Hungary : approval matching 06/08/2021

Suddenly he appeared on the screen, the man who was her brother! Sarath, who became completely desperate when she was adopted 35 years earlier. Finally, Linn Sjöbäck had traced her roots in Sri Lanka. And now she would also get to talk to her biological mother…

Linn Sjöbäck grew up wondering about his roots. She had several siblings who were also adopted, but she did not share her curiosity and desire to know more. She wanted to know more, much more.

- I have had a need to get a background that they may not have had and my parents have always supported me in this, says Linn.

She was adopted to Sweden from Sri Lanka when she was only 14 months old, in 1985. Her biological mother was present at the handover and no orphanage was ever included in the picture, which is perhaps more common.

- There were real documents and court proceedings. When I got the chance to check this, I was relieved that everything went right. I had become a little worried after all the writing about kidnapped children in the 80's, says Linn.

Hyderabad: A 68-year-old French woman who went missing three days ago was found murdered in bushes at Himayatsagar on Saturday. Later in the day, police arrested three persons, including the victim’s adopted daughter, in the murder case.

On Thursday, Cyberabad police received a complaint that Marie Christine, 68, a founder of Marica School at Dargah Khalij Khan in Gandipet, went missing on Wednesday night.

During the examination of suspects based on the information given by her family members, police picked up the victim’s 24-year-old adopted daughter, Roma.

On questioning her, police found that Marie was already murdered and her body was dumped in bushes at Himayatsagar. Later, police announced the arrest of Vikram Sriramulu and Rahul Gowtham along with Roma.

DCP (Shamshabad) N Prakash Reddy said Marie was looking for an alliance for Roma and she even uploaded her details on a matrimonial portal. Two months ago, they came across Vikram’s profile on the portal. Without the knowledge of the victim, Roma started to stay with Vikram at Kondapur, police said.

Marie did not like Vikram. When she came to know that Roma was staying with him and wanted to marry him, the victim rejected the proposal. “Roma decided to eliminate Marie and she conspired with Vikram and his friend Rahul. On the day of the murder, Roma visited the residence of Marie. Later, the victim dropped Roma at their school in Tolichowki in their car and returned to her house at Khalij Khan. By this time, the other two accused were already waiting for the victim as per plan,’’ Prakash Reddy said. Vikram and Rahul scaled the wall and got into the house and strangulated Marie to death. They stuffed the body in her car, drove it up to Himayatsagar and dumped it in a bush. They returned to her house and parked the car, police said. The accused also stole her phone and a laptop and transferred Rs 2 lakh from the victim’s account to Roma’s account.

The French woman has been living in Hyderabad for the last three decades and set up a few schools in city. She also gave shelter to several orphans. Marie had two biological daughters — Marie Solange, who resides in Hyderabad, and Rebecca, who stays in Puducherry. When Roma was a month old, Marie had adopted her as she was an orphan. Her biological daughters suspected Roma’s role in the murder as she has been staying away from their mother following a dispute.

A mother has reunited with the son she relinquished custody to in hopes he’d find a better home.

Melanie Pressley spent more than three decades wondering about the son she put up for adoption. She said her questions were finally answered when she took a DNA test from 23andMe, which suggested a genetic match to her firstborn son – Greg Vossler.

Pressley gave birth to Vossler in 1988 at the age of 18 in Canton, Ohio. Not being able to care for him financially, she found an adoption agency that would later connect her son to a two-parent household.

With the adoption being closed, all Pressley was left with was a single photograph of her newborn son from the day after his birth.

"You go through a mourning period and yet live the rest of your life mourning," Pressley told Fox News, when recalling the time she spent without her son.