Hours after the child in the missing baby case was brought to Kerala from Andhra Pradesh, Anupama, who is believed to be the child’s mother, told TNM that she and her husband want the DNA test to happen in their presence. “We had requested for the child’s medical examination to be conducted in our presence. We also wanted them to take the child’s samples in our presence,” he said. She asked how she can believe that the samples are taken from the child without proof of the same.

“What if they do manipulations in the samples? How will I believe them? I had also requested to see the child once, but that was also denied. They need to do this at least in our presence, I don't believe these people who have already committed several crimes,” Anupama told TNM.

However, the samples of the child have already been taken and it was not in the presence of Anupama and Ajith. Health Minister Veena George said that the sample collection of the child was recorded on video, and the samples of Ajith and Anupama will be collected at 2.20 pm.

The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on November 18 had issued an order directing the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) to bring the child to Kerala. The one-year old boy was in the foster care of a couple in Andhra Pradesh. The child is suspected to be the child of Anupama, who has raised allegations against her parents for kidnapping her baby soon after his birth and giving him in adoption through the KSCCW without her consent a year ago.

A team, led by KSCCW officials and comprising an escort of a Special Juvenile Police unit, received the child from the adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday and brought him to Kerala. The team reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday night.

OVER 30 CLINICIANS working in the area of childhood trauma have written to Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman asking for the parameters of the Mother and Baby Homes redress scheme to be changed to take into consideration “the impact of early trauma”.

Many survivors and clinicians have in recent days criticised the fact that people who were born in an institution but spent less than six months there have been excluded from claiming redress.

People have pointed out that the length of time they spent in an institution was irrelevant – whether it was one day or one year, they were still separated from their mother, often against her will. Children were generally adopted, sometimes illegally; boarded out; or sent to an industrial school.

In some cases, they were physically, sexually or emotionally abused. Many of those children also went on to experience separation anxiety, PTSD or other mental health issues later in life as a result of the circumstances of their birth.

A report compiled by Oak Consulting on behalf of the Government following focus groups with relevant stakeholders earlier this year found that the most frequently identified criteria that survivors stated should be used to assess payments were forced family separation, disappearance of individuals and psychological trauma – not length of time in institutions.

This week the 98th title of Yvonne Keuls will be published. A book she had to write, about her foster child Gemmetje. Just as she had to tell all those other unjust stories, including about child abuse by high-ranking people. "If I see the law being tampered with, I stand up."

Yvonne Keuls turns 90 next month, but that doesn't mean she gets few Whatsapp messages. In fact, "it goes on throughout the day," she says. She shows the baby photos that appear in the family app: one of her three great-grandchildren. “I have three daughters of my own, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. I eat that. They all have cauliflower ears because I nibbled on them.'

Three daughters of your own, you say. Why?

'Because I've also had some foster children over the years. One of them stayed in my life for 25 years, that's Gemmetje. It took me quite a while to write about her, but it had to happen, I've known that for twenty years, since her death. I have never laughed with anyone as much as with that creature. Maybe with my mother. And you know what it is: if you really laugh with someone, you never forget it – you can't put your finger on it, but if you can really laugh with each other, the bond goes under the skin.'

The novel that Keuls wrote about that 'creature', Gemmetje Victoria , will be published this week. It is her 98th title. A book in the vein of the 'social novels' that are among her greatest successes, and which are still read today: The rotten life of Floortje Bloem (1982), The mother of David S. (1980) and Jan Rap en z' nmaat (1977), in which Gemmetje (as Gemma) also plays one of the leading roles.

THE TESTIMONY GIVEN by Philomena Lee to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes about the adoption of her son has been misinterpreted by the Government, the High Court has heard.

Michael Lynn SC, acting on behalf of Lee, said an assertion made in court by Eoin McCullough SC, acting on behalf of the Government, that Lee consented to the adoption of her son was inaccurate.

Lynn said that while Lee did sign the document in question, she was given “no other choice” and the full content of it was never explained to her.

Lee and fellow survivor Mary Harney are among several women taking legal action against the State following the publication of the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes earlier this year. Their two legal challenges are being used as test cases which will set a precedent for future similar cases.

The Commission of Investigation dissolved in February, so the women are taking cases against the Minister for Children, the Irish Government and the Attorney General.

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Health Veena George asserted that the state government

had already requested the court to conduct DNA test of the child in connection with the

adoption controversy.

If Anupama is the mother of the child, she should get her child back at the earliest. The

government had made all possible interventions as adoption procedures also were

MAKED IMPRESSIONS: Many were moved to tears by Fredrik Solvang's strong story in the program «Lindmo» earlier this autumn. - The new report confirms what many of us have lived with since we were brought here in the 1970s and 80s, namely that we who are adopted abroad experience discrimination to the same extent as people with an immigrant background, the columnists write.

DANIEL Abimael SKJERVE Wensell

DIANA PATRICIA fynbos,

CHRISTINA VIOLETA THRANE Storsve, Adoption changing - Resource adopted and their families

HAWA Muus, Foundation on August 10

The government has made a “dog's dinner” out of its redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes, such as St Peter's in Castlepollard.

That's according to Paul Redmond, chairperson of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors (CMABS), who was born in Castlepollard in 1964.

An estimated 34,000 people will qualify for a payment under scheme, while 19,000 will also qualify for an enhanced medical card.

All mothers who spent time in a home will be eligible for a payment. A minimum payment of €5,000 will be made to mothers who spent three months or less at an institution and rises based on the length of stay, with a maximum payment of €65,00 for those who spent ten years or more.

Mothers who engaged in work during their stays will also be eligible for a separate payment, starting at €1,500 for those who worked for between three and six months and going up to a maximum payment of €60,000.

In 1951, 22 Greenlandic children were taken from their families and sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment. Now they are suing the state.

A group of Greenlanders who as children were removed from their families by the Danish state in an attempt to create a Danish-speaking elite, will now sue the Danish state.

It writes Politiken .

In 1951, a total of 22 Greenlandic children aged four to nine were removed from their parents and sent to Denmark to learn Danish.

Since then, they have been placed in an orphanage in Nuuk with a ban on speaking their mother tongue.

HAVERI: The number of children surrendered to a

government-recognised adoption centre in has

increased in the past 18 months.

The facility has taken in 28 such kids since Covid-19 broke

out. Loss of livelihood during the pandemic and parents not

Last week, the Kerala Child Welfare Committee, a quasi-judicial body, ordered authorities to produce the baby in five days and conduct a DNA test to decide biological parents

A baby who was allegedly given away for adoption without the mother’s consent was handed over to a joint team of Kerala Child Welfare Council and Kerala Police on Saturday by the foster parents, a couple from Andhra Pradesh who were given its custody in August this year.

The baby will be brought to Thiruvananthapuram by Sunday evening and a DNA test will be held on Monday to identify its biological parents, a senior official of the social welfare ministry said.

Last week, the Kerala Child Welfare Committee, a quasi-judicial body, ordered authorities to produce the baby in five days and conduct a DNA test to decide biological parents, following a petition filed by 23-year-old Anupama S Chandran, a former leader of the Students Federation of India (SFI), who has alleged that her boy born in October 2020 was secretively given away for adoption by her parents.

The team comprising three senior officials of the child welfare council and three police officers, including a woman officer, is expected to return in the state capital on late on Sunday. The Kerala Child Welfare Committee had ordered a senior police officer to give protection to the child till a final decision is taken. According to reports in local media, the Andhra couple returned the baby and reportedly told the team that they would be happy if the child finds his real parents.