“Shame” culture and poverty are forcing some Uzbek women to sell their newborns for pennies and purity.

Although trafficking in person has decreased in Uzbekistan due to a number of government efforts, the sale of children has taken off in recent years. While financial difficulties force many young families to sell their newborns, unmarried girls are opting to do so primarily because of “purity” culture.

Uzbekistan adopted its first law against human trafficking in 2008 and updated it in 2020. Reportedly, nearly 100 non-governmental organizations also work in the country to eliminate it. The number of registered crimes related to human trafficking decreased from 574 in 2012 to just 74 in 2020. However, the trafficking of children has seen a relative increase compared to other types of human trafficking – in 2018, 38 percent of crimes related to human trafficking involved child trafficking; by 2019 that proportion was 43 percent. In 2017-2020, 185 crimes related to selling and buying children were registered. Often, the crime mostly involves women. In 2019, for example, 86 percent of people charged with a child sale were women.

There are three main explanations of this practice. One is “purity” culture, which dictates girls should not have premarital sex. The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan says that in many child trafficking cases, girls become pregnant before marriage and hide it from their families and neighbors. They give birth in other regions of the country, away from their home. The people who help them with delivery also arrange the sale of the baby.

The shame of being a non-virgin, especially giving birth without a husband, is detrimental for girls in Uzbekistan. “Non-virgin” girls have to settle for previously married or widowed men who are usually around a decade older or they become second wives. To avoid such a fate, girls either terminate their pregnancy or sell the newborns and restore their hymen.

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by a couple against the 2021 order of the Bhiwani Family Court, which had dismissed their application under Section 56(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Holding that application for adoption cannot be dismissed merely on the ground that a biological mother cannot become a mother in dual status – which is a biological mother as well as adoptive mother – the Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside an order of the Bhiwani Family Court in this regard.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by a couple against the 2021 order of the Bhiwani Family Court, which had dismissed their application under Section 56(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The petitioner-appellants contended before the HC that appellant no. 2 (wife of appellant no. 1) initially was married to respondent (man) and a female child was born of this marriage in 2012. Later, the respondent-man and the appellant got divorced. Thereafter, appellant no. 2 (woman) married appellant no. 1 in 2017.

Both appellants then filed an application under Section 56 of the Act read with Regulations 52(4) and 55(2) of the Adoption Regulations for adoption of female

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has directed the Chandrapur Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to decide whether to hand over a two-year-old child’s custody to her birth mother, or a couple who raised the baby since soon after birth. The girl is currently placed in a home for destitutes.

The girl was born out of a live-in relationship in December 2019, and in March 2020 handed over to a childless couple after the petitioner was unable to take care of her. Even the girl’s father refused to look after her, and none of the relatives supported the petitioner as she was an unwed mother. The HC had ordered DNA tests of the petitioner and the child on September 19, to confirm she was her biological mother.

“The DNA profiling of the child and the petitioner has been done. The report is that she is the biological mother of the girl. In this view of the matter, we dispose of the petition by requesting the CWC to take an appropriate decision, consistent with the DNA profiling report, and of course keeping in mind the interest and welfare of the child,” a division bench comprising justices Rohit Deo and Urmila Phalke Joshi said, while allowing the petitioner to interact with her daughter subject to administrative convenience.

The backdrop of their order was a complaint lodged by the petitioner alleging that the foster parents had induced her to deliver the custody of the child, and prepared a false and fabricated document purporting to be an adoption deed which was notarized. “We are not delving deeper in the rest of the allegations in her complaint since we are informed the foster parents have instituted civil suit seeking to establish rights as adoptive parents,” the judges said, while directing the CWC to admit the kid into the remand home for destitutes.

According to the petitioner, when she found that the couple lacked financial resources, she demanded they hand over the child’s custody back to her. After the couple declined, she approached the district child protection officer.

EAU CLAIRE — Erika and Jeff Ehrhard were met with a smiling face almost a year ago when they first welcomed the young boy they would one day hope to adopt into their home.

“Hi, Jeff and Erika,” said Vanya, now 13 years old.

The couple had awaited his arrival for around three weeks by that point, nervous about the inevitable language barrier between them. They didn’t speak a word of Russian, and they were told Vanya knew very little English.

But they soon learned that gestures and Google Translate go a long way. Within weeks, the Ehrhards and their Ukrainian foster child spoke a language of their own. And within those same weeks, the Ehrhard Family soon realized they didn’t want Vanya to leave when the six-week foster period was up.

“I began to realize that, gosh, our family’s not going to be complete anymore,” Erika Ehrhard told the Leader-Telegram. “It’s like the piece that was missing that you never knew was missing until it got there.”

Sandra DeVries

Sandra De Vries

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Manager Programs Kinship Questions and Adoption Services

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While Supreme Court has voiced concerns over their increasing use to prove a case, women’s rights activists deem the technology an empowering tool

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA tests occupy a grey area in the quest for justice, vacillating between the dangers of slipping into self-incrimination and encroachment of individual privacy and the ‘eminent need’ to unearth the truth, be in the form of evidence in a criminal case, a claim of marital infidelity or proving paternity.

More and more complainants are seeking DNA tests — a senior official associated with a government laboratory estimates such requests increasing by around 20% each year. DNA Forensics Laboratory Private Limited, one of the biggest centres which is accredited with the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), says it tests around 300-400 samples each month that are both private requests and court-mandated. The numbers were only around 30-40 till five years ago.

Anand 2005

India. Door het noemen van de naam krijg ik al heimwee.

Na de Kiranreis in 2004 wilde ik graag wéér naar India.

Tijdens een gesprek geven Stella en Gertjan Poortman aan dat ze graag weer naar India willen. Tja, ik ben makkelijk over te halen. Op een middag zijn de tickets geregeld.

Op maandag 18 juli is het zo ver. Stella, Gertjan en Annemarie (een goede vriendin van Stella) komen mij ophalen. Na een vlucht van 7½ uur (met weinig beenruimte) landen we in Delhi. Het hotel is prima! We hebben de kamers op het dakterras.

Vice President Pence, Secretary Azar commemorate National Adoption Month

November 12, 2019

The 2019 class of recipients of adoption excellence awards were announced today at a HHS ceremony as part of National Adoption Month. Vice President Mike Pence, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, Assistant Secretary Lynn Johnson and other leaders addressed adoption advocates, parents and others in the field this morning in the HHS Great Hall.

The adoption excellence awards, given each year by the Children’s Bureau at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF), recognize individuals, families and organizations that have demonstrated excellence in making contributions to providing permanency for children in foster care.

The awardees were announced and honored during today’s event, where the vice president and secretary expressed the Trump administration’s support for efforts to find permanent homes for children in foster care.