A month after the news of the alleged rape of an 11-year-old child in Chennai was reported, an orphanage in the city is now under the scanner for sexually harassing over 40 students between the ages of 4 and 15.

The matter came to light when two city magistrates - Anitha Ananth and B Soundarya - were invited to conduct a legal awareness programme at the Eternal Word Trust orphanage in Saraswathi Nagar, Thirumullaivoyal, on Thursday.

According to the police, a few children at the orphanage came forward to complain about the harassment that they had been facing. The Avadi All Women Police Station Inspector Shoba Rani, who was present at the programme, took note of their complaint and acted quickly to rescue the children.

Following the complaint, 24 girls and 20 boys were shifted out of the orphanage to care homes.

As investigations began, the police soon discovered that the orphanage did not have an operating license.

Maneka Gandhi

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi.

Every MP and MLA in the country should visit shelter homes in their constituencies once every fortnight to prevent incidents like the horrific mass rape in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said on Saturday.

"I have written to every MP in the last four years saying that all 9,000 of the children's homes in the country have to be checked every two weeks because things happen to the defenceless," said the Union minister, while speaking at the Mail Today Femail Summit, 2018.

"I gave each a list of all the children's homes in their respective areas. Not a single MP has taken it up," she added, responding to a question about the alleged rape, abuse and torture of the girls by the politically connected owner of the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

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The Home managed by Eternal World Trust in Tirumullaivoyal.

The Home managed by Eternal World Trust in Tirumullaivoyal. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Crime reported by girls to judicial magistrates at a legal awareness campaign

Four persons, including the owners of an unauthorised orphanage in Tirumullaivoyal, were arrested on charges of child sexual abuse.

Representational image | Pixabay

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Agency seeks over four times more Group A officers, wants integrated finance division.

New Delhi: India’s controversy-laden adoption regulator, the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), is set for a major overhaul, with the agency looking to increase its senior-level staff strength by at least four times.

This comes at a time when several orphanages and shelter homes across the country have come under the scanner for alleged irregularities, sexual abuse and the sale of children.

24/08/2018

UNICEF and French government join efforts to improve International Adoption Standards in Viet Nam

(CPV) - UNICEF and the French Embassy in Viet Nam have signed an agreement to officialize their collaboration to improve international adoption standards in Viet Nam. The two-year project will help to strengthen the legal and policy framework on adoption.

It will also support a pilot project in two provinces on intercountry adoption in compliance with the international standards defined in the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention. Finally the project will help build capacity of agencies and organizations working on adoption, including on monitoring and supervision through training on alternative care and adoption processes and procedures.

Source: UNICEF

7 kids rescued at rly stn after escaping from Miraj madarsa

They are thought to be from Bihar’s Bhagalpur, and are currently with the CWC.

The ugly face of children being harassed in the name of education at various fake madrasas across the state has come to fore yet again, after as many as seven children ran away from one such place and were rescued by an NGO from Pune railway station on Thursday afternoon.

The children were then sent to a shelter home in Talegaon by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

While it continues to be a mystery as to how children in such large numbers are being brought in from Bihar, the seven kids in the latest case were also discovered to be natives of Bihar’s Bhagalpur district.

Ha Noi (VIET NAM), 23 August, 2018 – UNICEF and the French Embassy in Viet Nam have signed an agreement to officialize their collaboration to improve international adoption standards in Viet Nam. The two-year project will help to strengthen the legal and policy framework on adoption. It will also support a pilot project in two provinces on intercountry adoption in compliance with the international standards defined in the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention. Finally the project will help build capacity of agencies and organizations working on adoption, including on monitoring and supervision through training on alternative care and adoption processes and procedures.

“Viet Nam has ratified the Hague Convention in 2011 and the authorities have committed to ensure that intercountry adoption is done in an ethical and transparent manner giving paramount consideration to the best interests of children,” said Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam.

“Despite progress, the child protection system in the country is still nascent and intercountry adoption in Viet Nam still faces several gaps and challenges to meet international standards.”

The Intercountry Adoption Service of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs supports the Vietnamese central authority on this path as Viet Nam is the first country of origin in terms of adoption for France. In order to implement the three parts of the project, the Intercountry Adoption Service has allocated to UNICEF EUR 100,000 for two years which will fund activities with different government agencies in charge of intercountry adoption in Viet Nam and to pilot a high-quality operational model of intercountry adoption in Ho Chi Minh City and in Da Nang.

UNICEF’s work in Viet Nam focuses on building and strengthening the child protection system, working with government partners, UN agencies and civil society to ensure that a robust legal and policy framework is in place for the protection of children and to build capacity of the social welfare, justice and law enforcement sectors.

UDALGURI: A meeting to create awareness among the common people on child adoption was held in the Udalguri Civil hospital premise recently.

Udalguri district child protection officer Gautam Saharia explained the purpose of child adoption and its impacts on society. Lipika Barman moderated the awareness meeting.

Senior advocate Jayanta Brahma apprised the gathering of the provisions of law on child adoption.

The awareness campaign was aimed at easing out the present situation of vulnerability of children and to bring them to notice of the public for illegal adoption, its punitive measures and not to abandon children anywhere. The meeting was also attended by Dr. S R Dey, the Superintendent of Udalguri Civil Hospital, Udalguri OC Narayan Patangia, Buddha Basumatary, among others. The ASHA workers, gaon burahs and VDP organizations also took part at the meeting.

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Spanish couple abandon adopted Indian child, Bhopal agency under the scanner

SANYA DHINGRA 22 August, 2018

Shelter home allegedly misled parents on age of children; Italian couple also writes to Indian authorities against agency.

New Delhi: A Spanish couple has reportedly abandoned a girl they adopted from an agency in Madhya Pradesh after they were allegedly deceived about her age, the latest in a spate of controversies plaguing shelter homes across the country.

The case is the second such instance involving Udaan, a Bhopal-based Special Adoption Agency (SAA), which has also been accused by an Italian couple of providing them with “misleading” health and age information about a girl they had adopted.

A case of 2 lakh ‘missing’ children

Disparity in survey data submitted in SC

Discrepancies in two government-commissioned surveys, both a year apart, submitted in the Supreme Court show that over two lakh children, said to be residing in childcare homes, are “missing.”

A 2016-17 survey, commissioned by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, shows that 4.73 lakh children reside in care homes nationwide. However, the number of children in care homes came down to 2.61 lakh in the data submitted by the Centre before the Supreme Court in March 2018. The data were gathered by the Centre from the States.

‘Very disturbing’