Not everyone was happy about the Fab Four’s visit to India 50 years ago.

Despite the adulation and enthusiasm of the growing band of Beatles fans in India, their trip to Rishikesh was not without its controversies. There were many people in the country who were openly hostile to both Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi] and the arrival of the rock band and other celebrities from the West in his ashram. In the Lok Sabha, the elected Lower House of the Indian Parliament, the Opposition went up in arms alleging that the yogi was in cahoots with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that many of his guests from abroad were actually foreign spies. The charge was led by communist members of Parliament who formed a sizeable block in the Opposition benches and were supported by the socialists who too felt that something fishy was happening in Rishikesh.

‘Rishikesh, the Hotbed of Espionage,’ the front-page headline of the Free Press Journal newspaper had screamed the next morning. ‘Rishikesh has become the hotbed of espionage thronged by the Beatles yearning for Nirvana and intelligence agents nibbling at India’s security, Left Communist member K. Anirudhan complained in the Lok Sabha today,’ read the dramatic first paragraph of the report.

The veteran parliamentarian belonging to the Marxist Communist Party had painted an alarming picture in his lengthy supplementary question in the House. ‘The Beatles and hippies have set up their own colony in Rishikesh. And a foreign secret service boss is sitting at the feet of the yogi and living in the inner camp of the ashram ostensibly seeking nirvana,’ he had shrieked as his leftist and socialist colleagues on the Opposition benches thumped their tables.

Anirudhan had also expressed outrage at the luxurious quarters of the Beatles inside the ashram. ‘The huts built there are extremely comfortable. In fact, in one place palaces have been constructed,’ revealed the MP. He had also been very critical of the local Uttar Pradesh government gifting land to the Maharishi for an airstrip under pressure from powerful central leaders, and alleged that a special aircraft had been arranged for him by a suspicious foreign association.

Washington, DC

The case of Ms. Kairi Shepherd has been extensively reported in media in recent days. In response to questions, the spokesman of the Embassy said the following today (25 May, 2012):-

“The Embassy has seen reports concerning Kairi Shepherd, and has requested the US authorities for facts on this matter. All the information available to us on this case indicates that it has a clearly humanitarian dimension, that cannot be ignored. As reports indicate, Kairi Shepherd was brought to the United States after adoption, as a baby, and has known no other home. Her case deserves to be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion, keeping in mind the humanitarian dimension and tenets of universally accepted human rights.”

”

Dusk at the Dawn : A Study of Unwed Mother in Odisha

Ms. Sunita Behera, Dr. Ranjita Behera

Women’s Studies Reserarch Center, Berhampur University, Berhampur

*Corresponding Author E-mail:  

To support the Government of Armenia in advancing its human rights agenda and meeting the commitments vis-à-vis International Human Rights Instruments, the project aims to enhance human rights protection in the country, through formulation and implementation of inclusive policies, monitoring mechanisms and strengthened implementation capacity of the key national actors.

The Project is aligned with the targets of the Human Rights (HR) Budget Support Programme of the European Union (EU) and focuses on such priority areas as human rights monitoring and evaluation, prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, anti-discrimination, gender - based violence and child rights.

The project is funded by the EU and is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Actions in Brief

The Project actions are designed to:

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) The Supreme Court today pulled up the Kerala government for not ensuring adequate facilities to children living in orphanages and child care institutions there as mandated under the law.

The court said that according to the affidavit filed by the states chief secretary, several such institutions have stated that they cannot provide proper infrastructure to children living there.

"If these institutions are saying that they cannot provide proper infrastructure, food, clothes to the children, then is it okay for you? You are saying the same to us. What is this?" a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the counsel representing Kerala.

The bench said it would hear the state on the issue and "if we find that you are mistreating the children, we will see".

It also termed it as "amazing" that the state was unable to provide proper facilities to children living in orphanages and child care institutions.

“You can define how strong a democracy is by how its government treats its child. I don’t mean children. I mean the child of the state.” – Lemn Sissay (Adoptee; fostered)

As we wrap up the Series today, I would like to speak to some points briefly.

Having studied adoption in many climes, it remains to be said that absolutely nothing can be done for the child of the state, without the government.

One major complaint that almost everyone has had with the adoption process has been the time it takes from the expression of interest to the actual adoption. The anticipation of waiting. It’s not a Nigerian problem, it’s a universal one. From Australia, to the United Kingdom, it takes time to adopt, period. Like we noted earlier in the Series, each state legislates over adoption. Adoption is very different in each jurisdiction and it can be very messy and overwhelming for some people. In Nigeria, the government generally permits only children who have been abandoned and with no identifiable family members to take them in, to be adopted. In most developed countries, adoption is permitted even when family members may still be living, but only when they are no longer in a position to take care of them. But the truth is the same everywhere. The waiting list for younger children, most especially babies is longer than those for toddlers or young children. Like last season’s fashion, the longer they have been in the homes, the less likely they are to be adopted.

The government has always sought to protect the interest of children. Through the years, we have seen such tools as Family Planning, the fight against child abuse and trafficking and even the re-introduction of free education that have helped improve the lot of children. For the child of the state, however, a lot has been left undone. The passage of the Child Rights Act, 2003 has largely helped in this direction but how much? Abandoned children are still at the mercy of evil people who use them to throw pity parties and get grants form unsuspecting organizations. These children are being sold to willing couples; people who have tired of the long drawn out adoption process and will do anything to get a child. They are also trafficked for various heart breaking activities.

The call reference is EuropeAid/158557/DH/ACT/Multi.

Guidelines and all the relevant documents can be found here.

The deadline for the submission of concept notes is 27/03/2018.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to ensure better outcomes for children by ensuring better implementation of the UN's Guidelines for the alternative care of children in their entirety, so that children enjoy equal chances to reach their full potential in societies.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to provide quality care for children through the following priorities:

A hospital in textile town Ichalkaranji has emerged as a suspected hub for ‘baby trade’, where a homeopath and his wife allegedly arranged illegal adoptions.

In a matter of months, two couples on a desperate quest for parenthood experienced the joy of bringing home an unwanted baby and the shock of seeing the child being taken away by authorities investigating trafficking and illegal adoptions.

This traumatic chapter for the Chahandes and the Sawais, from Chandrapur and Nerul, began with a phone call and a visit to the maternity hospital run by homeopath Dr Arun Patil in Ichalkaranji, a laid-back textile town about 382 km from Mumbai. It has tainted their dream of starting a family, and police and government officials suspect Dr Patil arranged, for a substantial fee, informal and illegal adoptions for many childless couples, who are probably not even aware they have committed a crime.

Dr Patil, his wife and the Chahandes, Manoj and Prerna, were arrested last week and face serious charges. The Sawais, Amol and Aarti, were briefly detained. They all deny wrongdoing.

Dr Patil, Mirror has learned, oversaw around 70 deliveries a month at his hospital, an unusually high number for a place like Ichalkaranji, but didn’t maintain a record in every case. Officials are reportedly exploring the line of inquiry that he built a network with unwed mothers and other women, including victims of sexual assault, not in a position to raise their children because of social and financial challenges. He allegedly advised them to sell the babies to couples eager to adopt one.

One of the questions that was asked with a significant frequency after we got to know the message of categorical support, for DNA and for Laura Kovesi, that President Klaus Iohannis gave on Thursday evening, was that if not somehow, through a similar declarations of accession, doesn't Mr. President flagrantly violate the provisions of the Constitution and, in this way, risks causing legitimate concerns, in particular, to our partners in the European Union? And here it is that not even two days have passed since, at the Palace in Dealul Cotrocenilor, Mr. President of all Romanians made these very controversial statements that we have received a categorical signal of concern, indeed another one expressed in very categorical terms :,,

There will be, for sure, also this time, some whiners who will reply that such statements are not new and that, in roughly the same terms, we have received numerous other warnings. Agreed, only this time the warning was issued by the chairman of the Bundestag European Affairs Committee himself, Gunther Krichbaum, who is publicly asking the European Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker, not only not to suspend the MCV for Romania, but to proceed to the initiation of the procedure provided for by Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which also provides for the loss of the right to vote in the EU Council, if it is found that that state has not respected the law and democratic norms. Or, after as Herr Gunther Krichbaum whispers, in a tone that does not admit of reply, like this and only like this, things must be seen!

Agree, and this time, you'll tell me that it's nothing new, because the MEP Cristian Preda, a well-known and fervent companion of the anti-Romanian ideals of the pro-European Monica Macova, had this exact idea. Which, also on the grounds/pretext of attacks on the independence of the judiciary, made the same proposal. Allow me, however, to add that it is not the first time that Herr Gunther Krichbaum shows his deep concern about the fate of the righteous DNA and of handcuff democracy. He did it a year ago, as in 2015, after publicly admitting that Romania meets the technical criteria to be admitted to the Schengen Area, his lordship raised the objection that "there are border guards (Romanians, of course not ) who accept benefits''. Where do we keep talking about corruption, right?

But wait a minute, as the saying goes, that's not all! For example, from information that circulates on media channels and which, so far, no one has contested, Herr Gerhard Krichbaum has certain connections with the Romanian lands and with everything special. Thus, as we learn from a material published in the July 8, 2015 edition of the "Jurnalului Na?ional", the wife of the fervent supporter of the multilateral cause-medal winner Laura Kovesi, was called Oana Harvalia before marriage, and the civil marriage took place at Sibiu, on November 5, 2010. Where, guess what, who was the mayor of the municipality?...

Did you somehow rush to hang up, thinking I had exhausted the list of coincidences? You don't even know what you were missing, because the big surprises will only come now. Find out, therefore, that, before becoming the wife of the influential German parliamentarian, Miss Oana Harvalia was Monica Macova's personal advisor during the period when she held the mandate of Minister of Justice. As, a few years before, his lordship held the position of executive director of the "Parents and Children" Foundation. A foundation whose main object of work was the adoption of children from Romania by families from other countries. How and under what conditions these adoptions were carried out, we learn from the statements of Teodora Bretzi, at that time secretary of state at the Romanian Adoption Office (ORA), also quoted in the article from the "National Journal":,,In Romania, adoptions were done on a conveyor belt. Adopted children were treated as a commodity''.

EXCLUSIVE: Top UNICEF children's rights campaigner - who led UK's anti-smacking campaign - is jailed for rape of boy, 13, in latest charity sex scandal

Peter Newell was a leading children's rights campaigner who worked for UNICEF

The 77-year-old, from London, led the UK's anti smacking campaign in a long and distinguished career

Newell also helped prepare UNICEF's Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child

But now he is facing six years and eight months in jail for the abuse of a young boy