New Delhi: With messages on social media floating of people having adopted and willing to adopt children who have lost parents to Covid-19, chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Anurag Kundu has asked Delhi Police to intervene in these matters and increase their vigilance on social media.

This red flag from Kundu follows the fear that some may use this opportunity for trafficking or selling children.

In a letter to Delhi Police commissioner SN Srivastava, Kundu said, “I want to bring to your attention my concern about social media being currently filled with adoption information of acceptance and offer of children who have turned orphan during the pandemic. The child rights commission has come across many instances on social media where people who have information about orphans are encouraging others to adopt them.”

“In some cases the post update informs the children have been adopted. I am sure some of these are out of ignorance of the law governing adoption, however, they may also be cases of trafficking and sale/purchase of the children. These need to probed to get to the depth of the matter,” the letter added.

Kundu said he will also be writing to the DCP, cyber crime, with specific instances requesting inquiry.

Earlier this week, DCPCR appealed to people on social media to call on their helpline number and report cases where children need essential supplies, have lost their parent(s), or are struggling to support themselves due to the illness.

Flooded by requests for adopting children who lost their parents to Covid-19, both online and offline, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has urged people not to fall for misinformation floating on social media, and advised interested families to follow the due legal process to initiate the adoption process.

Several children have lost their parents to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic -- fourth wave, as per the Delhi government -- in the national capital. Earlier this week, DCPCR appealed to people on social media to call on their helpline number and report cases where children need essential supplies, have lost their parent(s), or are struggling to support themselves due to the illness. Following this, the child rights body said requests for adopting children orphaned amid the pandemic have also started pouring in.

Commission chairperson Anurag Kundu tweeted on Saturday evening: “Do not believe anyone who says he/she can give you the child for adoption. They are either lying or misleading or simply involved in illegal practices. Do reach out to your lawyer friends for advice.”

Kundu said he himself has received around 10 such requests in the last few days. “Besides, I see a lot of posts floating around about child adoption. People need to understand that they have to follow a legal process. Any adoption without it is illegal,” he said.

Antonin Maindron, who came to France at the age of three and a half, thought his biological parents were dead. He will meet them in Ethiopia, his country of origin. Testimony.

In his dining room, seated on a chair, he firmly holds his Christmas present. A photo album retracing his childhood given to him by his mother Nelly. These memories of youth will soon travel to Africa in the house where the young man was born in the mid-90s.

He puts the book down and starts. He has the impression of "reciting" his story, of appearing detached in the eyes of his interlocutors. The fire is inside. He hesitates and recovers: "It's a crazy thing, it's unimaginable. »Adopted in France at the age of three and a half, Antonin Maindron will be reunited with his biological parents , whom he believed to be dead, in Ethiopia in a few days.

From La Gaubretière , a town nestled in the Vendée bocage where he has lived for 22 years, he delivers a poignant testimony . A rare word that he also wants full of hope for uprooted children.

Read also

At least 5,678 children and adolescents are in different reception centers in the country waiting for a family

The President of the State, Luis Arce Catacora, promulgated this Thursday the modifying law of procedural abbreviation to facilitate the adoption of at least 5,678 children and adolescents who are in different reception centers in Bolivia and that guarantees the restitution of the human right to have a family.

"Our Government supports and executes public policies with priority for the benefit of our children , this is one of them and we are happy to enact this law that will bring institutionalized children closer to the right to have a family," said Arce.

The norm that modifies articles of Law N ° 548 of the Child and Adolescent Girl Code was prepared by the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency to allow fast and safe adoption processes.

The president added that before the new rule an adoption process lasted up to more than four years ; however, with this modification it should only take three months.

When Xueli was a baby her parents left her on the ground outside an orphanage. In China, albinism is seen by some as a curse.

The rare genetic condition causes a lack of pigment which makes Xueli's skin and hair very pale and also makes her extremely sensitive to sunlight.

But looking different led Xueli to her modelling career. Now aged 16, she has graced the pages of Vogue and fronted campaigns for top designers.

This is her story as told to Jennifer Meierhans.

Xueli

When Agnes (56) was seven, she learned that she had been adopted. She always kept quiet about that. Only last year did she bring it out.

“I grew up in an ordinary middle class family. My parents worked hard and were busy, but they loved my little brother and me very much. I was seven when my mom said, 'I need to tell you something. You and your brother have been adopted. ' Strangely enough, that didn't shock me at all. Somehow I had always known. I felt different, like I didn't belong anywhere. And those freckles of mine, nobody in our family had them, that was crazy, wasn't it? ”

"My mother didn't know much about my origins, only that I had been in the Mother Health Monastery in Breda until I was five months old and that my young biological mother had given me up because she couldn't take care of me."

Adopted

The next day I told my neighbor. She didn't believe me. I just left it that way; actually I was ashamed of my adoption. I didn't want to be seen as 'different' from now on. And I was just a cheese head, so no one would guess. If I was somewhere with my dad and they said, 'Gosh, you don't look like your dad at all', I would quickly say, 'No, I look like my mother, she's at home.' ”

ABOUT 20 South Australian families who have been waiting up to three years to adopt Indian babies remain in limbo after an adoption agency was accused of baby trafficking.

The State Government has also said the private agency – known as Preet Mandir – asked for exorbitant "donations" of $5000 on top of the usual $5000 fees from SA couples.

The Indian Government revoked Preet Mandir's inter-country adoption licence in July, following an undercover CNN investigation where babies were sold to foreigners for $16,000.

That followed the adoption agency being investigated and cleared of tricking poor, vulnerable women into giving up children last year.

Preet Mandir has brokered around 40 babies for SA families since 2000. It is believed many would have paid the so-called $5000 donation.

Preet Mandir, Pune

From this orphanage, only one child has come to FFIA. As soon as that adoption was complete, FFIA suspended the collaboration for several reasons. On the one hand, the children did not receive the care we were guaranteed, and on the other hand, neither the financial nor the administrative process was handled as promised.

For many years, the orphanage transferred children to other organizations around the world. Many serious social workers and organizations reported the misconduct on Preet Mandir, but it was extremely difficult to get their license revoked due to the organization's contacts in influential circles. See article below for more information.

https://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/docs/adoption_Dohle_cumb_final.pdf

The children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages has admitted that it received 37 reports of the sexual abuse of children involving charity personnel in 2016.

The charity, based in Vienna, Austria, admitted the reports in the wake of the sex scandal involving the international charity Oxfam which was also accused of child sex abuse in South Sudan earlier this week.

The press officer for SOS Children’s Villages Cecilia Bergling Naucler said that while they did receive 37 reports of sex abuse, they did not want to identify those accused for “privacy reasons”, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

According to Ms. Naucler, the victims were “either children or young adults”. She added: “Due to confidentiality legislation and consideration for children and young people in our activities, we can not comment on individual cases or an exact number.”

The charity, Naucler said, tends to hire locals wherever it operates and the charity told the Swedish broadcaster: “In case of suspicion of serious abuse, notification is made to the police and judicial authorities, in accordance with the country’s current legislation.”

Nanna Behmer has grown up in a good and loving adoptive family. Still, she believes that all children should have the right to know their biological origins.

At a small country house near Otterup on Funen, just a few kilometers from the north coast of Funen, 19-year-old Nanna Behmer is on her way out to air the family dog.

She has lived here since she was very young, with her adoptive parents and her older brother, who is also adopted.

But even though Nanna Behmer has a loving family and could not wish for a better life, she now chooses to meddle in the debate about forced adoption.

She believes that all children should have the opportunity to know their biological origins. Also the children who are adopted away by force because the parents for various reasons are not considered suitable to raise a child.