When she fell pregnant, her parents kicked her out of their home. The Ethiopian teenager then sought refuge across the border in Moyale.

But after giving birth at Sololo Mission Hospital on July 18, 2012, she abandoned the baby. Not even community service penalty by a Moyale court could tighten the bond between the young mother and her baby. She fled. The infant was placed under foster care at the Nairobi Children’s Home.

But on July 11, 2019 the baby found new parents. The court allowed a couple, who had adopted a son in July 2015, to assume parental rights of the baby’s biological parents.

“The child shall have the right to inherit their property. The applicants shall not be able to give up the child owing to any subsequent unforeseen behaviour or other changes in the child. This court dispenses with the consent of the child’s biological mother who abandoned it and disappeared into Ethiopia,” said Justice Aggrey Muchelule.

Hers is just one of several cases of parents running away from their children. While some give up their children due to economic hardships, others do so due to traditions and the stigma of giving birth at a young age. It is a situation that has seen the children acquire new parents, identities and homes as they continue with their lives without knowing their biological parents.

Jalandhar, August 17

Amid the much-hyped rumours about child-abduction incidents surfacing on social media, especially WhatsApp, the Police Division 1 today arrested two persons involved in the kidnapping of a newborn boy, identified as Shiva.

The suspects reportedly abducted the infant from the pavements near Fair Farm on GT Road. On the complaints of Chanda Rani and her husband, the police acted swiftly and arrested the suspects from Bathinda and recovered the boy, who was born only 15 days ago. SHO, Police division-1, Sukhbir Singh, said the incident was reported on Thursday evening.

“The victims, who are migrant labourers and resides here near the pavements, said two-motorcycle borne assailants took away their child from the lap of their 10-year old daughter Rashmi, who was playing with the child.

Rashmi said the suspects, a man and a woman, were wearing masks while committing the crime,” the SHO added.

Among the submissions made before the court were photographs of their children. The sessions court, while granting bail, stated that the photographs show that they had “no malafide intention of trafficking the children”, and that their intention was to adopt them.

WEEKS AFTER they were rescued by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in an alleged interstate child-selling racket, six children between the ages of 18 months to seven years face an uncertain future, with officers saying they can neither be allowed to go back to the care of their biological parents who allegedly sold them nor returned to those who allegedly purchased them.

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Since July, the six children have been put up at Bal Anand, a specialised adoption agency at Chembur as per the orders of the Mumbai Children Welfare Committee (CWC). The authorities have not ruled out giving them for adoption. But what is complicating the decision is that those who allegedly bought the children were treating them well and bringing them up like their own.

In some cases, the children had spent years with their new “parents”. The oldest child, a seven-year-old boy, had been living with the family from whom he was rescued for more than three years. While the police are yet to decide whether to name the biological parents as accused, some “adoptive” parents, who were arrested and released on bail, have approached the CWC for custody of their children, even temporarily, till a decision is taken on their fate.

Children are the pleasure and pride for parents and future of our society and country

By Alok Gupta, Honorary Secretary, Bapuji Children’s Home

Sometimes children lose the protection of their parents because of their demise or other unavoidable circumstances. Such children become homeless and then the State becomes their guardian.

To look after such children, Government runs Homes for them under their direct control and also through recognised NGOs under their supervision. Government appoints prominent social workers to form Child Welfare Committees (CWC) in each district to take urgent decisions in cases of such children, who are in need of protection and care. CWC, a quasi-judicial body, carries out this job with the assistance of District Child Protection Officers (DCPO) and Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU).

Homes for the children provide food, clothing, medical care, shelter, education, vocational training, counselling and other inputs for overall development of the children till they attain age of 18 years. Examples of such Government-run Homes in Mysuru are Government Girls Home on Lalitha Mahal Road and Government Boys Home in Vijayanagar 4th Stage. Both these Homes take care of children between the ages of 6 and 18 years.

Among the submissions made before the court were photographs of their children. The sessions court, while granting bail, stated that the photographs show that they had “no malafide intention of trafficking the children”, and that their intention was to adopt them.

WEEKS AFTER they were rescued by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in an alleged interstate child-selling racket, six children between the ages of 18 months to seven years face an uncertain future, with officers saying they can neither be allowed to go back to the care of their biological parents who allegedly sold them nor returned to those who allegedly purchased them.

Since July, the six children have been put up at Bal Anand, a specialised adoption agency at Chembur as per the orders of the Mumbai Children Welfare Committee (CWC). The authorities have not ruled out giving them for adoption. But what is complicating the decision is that those who allegedly bought the children were treating them well and bringing them up like their own.

In some cases, the children had spent years with their new “parents”. The oldest child, a seven-year-old boy, had been living with the family from whom he was rescued for more than three years. While the police are yet to decide whether to name the biological parents as accused, some “adoptive” parents, who were arrested and released on bail, have approached the CWC for custody of their children, even temporarily, till a decision is taken on their fate.

“I had enrolled my child in one of the most prestigious playschool chains. He was in the middle of a vaccination cycle. When he was taken away from us, we were not even asked whether he has any medical needs or allergies. We were arrested and released on bail… we will be punished as per law. But right now, the children are suffering as their normal lives have been disrupted,” said a parent.

In the last nine years, 20 Nepali children have been taken to six countries for adop­tion, according to government records. However, statistics from those six nations show that 157 Nepali children have been adopted by their citi­zens. Where have the other 137 gone? This means that Nepali kids are being smug­gled out of the country.

The government has been sending children to 18 nations for adoption. Six among them—Denmark, France, Norway, Canada, Switzerland and the US—submit the list of Nepali kids adopted by their citizens to the Hague Confer­ence on Private International Law (HCCH). The data they have submitted reveal that 157 Nepali children have entered those nations as foster kids since 2010.

According to the Nepal gov­ernment data, 82 children have been sent to the other 12 countries for adoption since 2010. But since this number cannot be independently ver­ified, it is unclear how many Nepali children have actually been taken out of the country.

How did they go abroad?

Before 2010, adoption rules and procedures were not as stringent as they are now. But now that the government has tightened the rules, an increasing number of Nepali children are being smuggled out of the country. The then Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare formed a separate committee to man­age and implement the proce­dures for sending Nepali kids for adoption abroad. In 2009, Nepal also signed the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

Head of Bal Mandir, nation’s oldest non-profit for children, arrested on charges of child trafficking

The director of the organisation has been accused of abetting a British national in unlawfully procuring a Nepali child and assisting in obtaining fraudulent documents to claim the baby.

Head of Bal Mandir, nation’s oldest non-profit for children, arrested on charges of child trafficking

Tsering D Gurung

Published at : August 15, 2019 Updated at : August 15, 2019 17:53 Kathmandu

Raksha Bandhan 2019: "When you adopt older kids, you need to keep in mind that they remember their past. My daughter was three years old when she came to us. Every time we went back for court hearings and she saw her previous caretaker, she would get frightened."

Raksha Bandhan 2019: Sheik Jenia, a mother from Delhi, adopted a girl child last year after having two biological sons. The mother told Express Parenting about how she adopted her daughter, who now listens to her elder brother more than her mother. Here’s her story, in her words:

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‘I wanted a girl. That’s when adoption came to my mind’

I have two boys and one girl. My boys, eight and six, are my biological kids. My husband and I wanted a girl. When I had my first child, I had no expectations with regard to gender and just wished for a healthy baby. When we planned our second baby, we hoped for a girl. And I gave birth to a boy. I remember telling my doctor in the operation theatre, ‘I will come back again.’

The family, which also includes the girl’s two elder brothers, has been living for years at Manakad at a shed-like house on a Puramboke land.

KOZHIKODE: Emotions flow unabatedly at the time of a crisis like landslides and flood being witnessed by the state for the second consecutive year, but the persons demonstrating such feelings don’t necessarily follow guidelines and they ignore the problem their offers would create.

A 12-year-old girl, who lost her father recently, is the centre of discussion now going viral on social media. A number of Keralites across the globe wanted to adopt her.

The discussion is taking place with all details of the girl, including her picture, following which the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) has raised the alarm over the auction-like offers for the minor. Originally from Karnataka, the girl’s father Raju, a street performer, collapsed and died at the flood relief camp at Manakad UP School, Mavoor here, on August 11.

The family, which also includes the girl’s two elder brothers, has been living for years at Manakad at a shed-like house on a Puramboke land. Their house was washed away in flood. The girl’s mother had deserted them years back.

CEO of Adopt Change Renee Carter joins Jon Faine and co-host Sally Warhaft for Known Unknowns, to talk about adoption.

Last year there were 22 adoptions in Victoria and 330 adoptions in Australia.

"There has been a massive decline," Ms Carter said.

"Some of it is good reason, but a lot of it is to do with our heritage of adoption in Australia. We used to do adoption very badly."

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