NAGPUR: In a landmark verdict, the Nagpur bench of

Bombay High Court ruled that adoption can't be restricted to only orphaned,

abandoned and surrendered children or those

in conflict with law or in need of care and protection.

While partly allowing a revision application by the biological

PANJIM: Last month, the police machinery led an unstoppable hunt amidst a heavy downpour to trace a toddler, abducted by an unidentified woman from the government-run Goa Medical College and Hospital.

The case was cracked but what unfolded the serious crime of separating a breastfeeding mother from her child shook the conscience of the State. Obsession with a son, usually unheard of in a State with 87.40 per cent literacy rate, was the sole reason why the woman took the crime route. This has triggered a debate across various platforms.

We, however, look at how in Goa there is alleged illegal adoption amidst instances of unwed mothers or financially-poor families handing over their newborns – irrespective of the gender – to wealthy couples.

About four years ago, the Goa Police was shown the real side of illegal adoption following a complaint lodged by Victim Assistance Unit (VAU). A Goan couple living in the UK had illegally adopted a girl child from a daily-wage earning couple hailing from Karnataka.

Ironically, the couple who illegally adopted the child did not take her with them to UK but instead handed over her custody to the sister of one of the accused living in Goa. The child, excellent in academics and sports, was ill-treated and physically abused. An investigation unearthed the dark side of what can also be termed as smuggling of innocent children. Unfortunately, the child’s biological parents refused to take her back and she was later given in the custody of the Child Welfare Committee.

Shrill, campy and brutally honest: Director Rosa von Praunheim is a pioneer and icon of gay rights in Germany. The tireless filmmaker's latest movie is released as he celebrates his 75th birthday.

"Hello freaks, film friends and perverts! I was one of the first in the world to make a gay rights film after World War II, and I can say in all modesty that I'm probably the most productive gay filmmaker on Earth," Rosa von Praunheim confidently writes on his website.

He is definitely the most hard-working one. Von Praunheim has directed about 80 feature and documentary films to date, as well as countless short videos for television.

He initially didn't even want to become a filmmaker, as he preferred painting. But he quickly noticed that he could reach a larger audience with his movies.

First artistic ambitions

Romanian nuclear utility Nuclearelectrica on 24 June announced the adoption by the Romanian Parliament of a draft law on the ratification of the Agreement between the Romanian Government and the United States Government on the cooperation regarding the Cernavoda nuclear project - the refurbishment of units 1,3 & 4. The Government adopted the draft law for the ratification of the agreement in March and the legislation was sent to the Parliament in an emergency procedure. The Chamber of Deputies adopted the bill on 12 May followed by a positive Senate vote in June.

Cernavoda has two commercially operational Candu 6 pressurised heavy water reactors supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and built under the supervision of a Canadian-Italian consortium of AECL and Ansaldo. Construction of the two-unit station began in the early 1980s. Cernavoda 1 has a capacity of 700MWe, and accounts for about 10% of Romania’s electricity demands. It was commissioned and began commercial full power operation in December 1996. Cernavoda 2 was commissioned in 2007. Construction of three more units began, but was stopped in 1990. The Cernavoda 3&4 project aims to complete and commission two further Candu 6 reactors. According to Nuclearelectrica, the two units currently comprise the reactor building, the turbine-generator building and hydrotechnical circuit structures in various stages of completion.

In October 2020, Romania and the USA initialised an Intergovernmental Agreement on the cooperation in the civil nuclear industry field, which was subsequently notified and endorsed by the European Commission. Ratification of the Agreement represents the general framework for the continuation and implementation of strategic nuclear projects assumed by Romania in the energy strategy and as a pillar for achieving decarbonisation targets, energy security and the efficient transition to clean energy.

“I welcome and appreciate the efforts of all factors involved in the adoption of the draft law for the ratification of the Agreement. From the operator’s point of view, time is an important variable in carrying out projects and our goal is to have unit 3 connected to the grid in 2030 and unit 4 in 2031,” said Nuclearelectrica CEO Cosmin Ghita. “Thus, Romania will align itself with the states that heavily capitalise on domestic resources to ensure the transition, as well as the energy consumption at sustainable prices considering that, for example, based on the international studies, the cost of electricity resulting from the extension of the nuclear units lifetime is the lowest of all sources, and that new nuclear projects are considered competitive. Therefore, nuclear projects come with a double advantage: competitive costs and zero CO2 emissions.”

Romania is keeping its options open, however, having also signed a declaration of intent with France in October 2020 for a partnership on the construction of reactors 3&4 and the upgrade of Cernavoda 1, and also signed a contract in February with a subsidiary of Canada’s Ontario Power Generation to support refurbishment of Cernavoda.

Raised as Holger Mischwitzky before he adopted his stage name, Rosa von Praunheim, the prominent German filmmaker turns the camera on himself in this documentary about the search for his birth parents. At the age of 95, von Praunheim's beloved mother, Gertrud, revealed that she had adopted him from a children's home in Riga, Latvia. After her death, with only that snippet of information to go on, von Praunheim and a team of dedicated researchers seek out what information they can about his origins. Von Praunheim must enlist the aid of scholars and historians in Germany and Latvia to narrow down the possibilities-is he Jewish? Illegitimate? A product of Aryan science?-from the paper trail that remains from 1942, the year he was born. Thanks to a bit of luck, he is able to tease out clues about his birth mother, but with each revelation comes a new set of mysteries and possible scenarios. Was it romance or tragedy that brought him into the world? Von Praunheim's exploration is not just a whodunit, but also a fascinating chronicle of the people, places, and ideology of a period: a time when 26,000 people could be exterminated in two days, as the Jews in Latvia were in 1941, and when it was considered completely sensible to be married in an SS uniform. Two Mothers is also a loving tribute to the mother who raised him, the one who remembers the moment she first spotted him. "It was love at first sight for the both of us."

CAST & CREDITS

Directed by Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim (b. 1942, Riga, Latvia), gay activist and filmmaker, believed until 2006 that his real name was Holger Mischwitzky. He chose his artist name Rosa to remind people of the pink triangle ("rosa Winkel") that homosexuals were forced to wear in the Nazi concentration camps. In 1971 he achieved notoriety throughout Germany with his film It's not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, but the Situation in Which He Lives, which was crucial to the founding of the new German gay movement. He has made 70 films, many of which deal with his favorite subjects: homosexuality, older women, and New York City.

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The Avaniyapuram police booked seven persons, including three couples, in connection with the illegal adoption of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl child on Saturday.

MADURAI: The Avaniyapuram police booked seven persons, including three couples, in connection with the illegal adoption of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl child on Saturday. Of the seven, five were arrested and two were on the run.

According to sources, the suspects were identified as G Suganya, her husband P Ganesh Kumar, S Selvi, her husband P Samayasanjeevi, Kalanithi and her husband M Balachandar, and one Saravanan. The child belonged to one Chithra, a relative of Suganya, who allegedly took her and illegally gave it to Kalanithi and Balachandar for adoption. The couple had also forged birth certificates with the help of Saravanan.

The child was rescued and based on a complaint by Child Welfare Committee Chairperson Vijayasaravanan, all seven were booked. Except for Samayasanjeevi and Saravanan, the rest were arrested.

A CWC member B Pandiaraja told TNIE that Chithra had four more children; the first child was reported stolen, a baby boy died during the birth and two baby girls, who were twins, were taken by Suganya. While Suganya kept one of the girls, she gave the other twin to her friend Selvi of Sellur, he added. “It is not yet certain whether the adoption involved money or Chithra played a role in it,” Pandiaraja said.

Justice Manisha Pitale of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court held that adoption cannot be restricted to children who have been orphaned, abandoned or those in conflict with law. The Juvenile Justice Act permits adoption of children of relatives, she said.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has held that as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, adoption of children cannot be restricted only to orphaned, abandoned, surrendered children or those in conflict with the law, adding the law also permits adoption of children of relatives.

A single-judge bench of Justice Manisha Pitale was hearing a petition filed by the biological parents of a girl child from Wardha who wanted their daughter to be adopted by a family from Yavatmal in Maharashtra. The Yawatmal lower court had rejected their plea under the provisions of the JJ Act and Adoption Regulations framed under this Act.

The ground that the lower court had taken that since the child, in this case, is neither a child in conflict with the law, nor a child in need of care and protection, nor an orphan, nor a surrendered/abandoned child, the provisions of the JJ Act are not applicable.

Since there were no respondents in the case, Justice Pitale appointed Advocate FT Mirza as amicus curiae to assist the court for proper disposal. Advocate Mirza also supported the prayer made on behalf of the parents.

After three long years of search and struggle, Sreya and Nikhil (names changed), a Bangalore-based

couple, managed to adopt a four-year-old boy. Sreya says she initially wanted a baby girl, a newborn if

that would have been possible. But the options were limited and the couple finally went with the boy. It

has brought happiness and joy into the lives of the childless couple. They are so relieved that they

managed to adopt a child after so long.

Forever family is like a manufactured Hallmark idea”: Adoption discontinuity experiences of intercountry adoptees

Highlights

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Intercountry adoptees with adoption discontinuity experiences experience legal, residential, relational, and cultural losses

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Jane Blasio went looking for her biological parents and uncovered a shocking scandal — she was one of hundreds of infants illegally sold in the 1950s and 1960s from a clinic in Georgia

Six-year-old Jane Blasio was playing in her backyard one afternoon when her life was upended. Her father, Jim, asked her to come indoors because he wanted to tell her something.

The Akron, Ohio resident ran inside to find Jim puffing on a cigarette.

"We have something to tell you and it may be hard for you to understand," he said to Blasio and her sister Michelle, 11, who sat at the kitchen table.

As he fumbled for his words, Joan, the girls' mother, announced, "You two were adopted. Do you know what that means?"