When Pune-based school teacher Jyothika Sawant* and her college professor husband Shirish*, both in their mid-30s, decided to adopt a daughter, their family was taken aback. This was because Jyothika and Shirish were already parents to a healthy son; also, age and health were on their side to give birth to a second child if they wanted to. But as Jyothika tells us, “I have always wanted to adopt, right from my college days, and when I met Shirish, one of the reasons why I decided to take our relationship ahead was because he shared my wish. We planned to have two children, and after our son was born, we decided to extend our family by bringing our daughter home.”

Jyothika and Shirish are among a growing tribe of parents and families, wherein couples with biological children are deciding to extend their families via adoption. They see adoption as “just another way of bringing a child in their lives”. Bengaluru-based mental health counsellor Gayatri Abraham admits, “In the last few years, many families are coming forward to adopt and hybrid families are growing. New family formations are generally on the rise, which is heartening.”

Adoption second child

‘Giving birth is not the only way of making a family’

“We always wanted to adopt as we feel, and propagate, that giving birth is not the only way of making a family,” says Gurgaon resident Shruti Haksar, who is a mother of two daughters, nine-year-old Zara and three-year-old Zoya. Shruti and her husband had adopted their younger daughter.

Adopted people will be able to access their birth certificates irrespective of the wishes of their birth mothers under a law to be introduced by the Government.

Access to birth certificates is to be facilitated by way of a mechanism where surviving mothers can register their consent or their opposition to being contacted, but cannot veto the process, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said.

In cases where the mother has registered her opposition to being contacted, the person seeking their birth certificate will attend a meeting where the wishes of the parent will be outlined, and the need to respect the mother’s privacy rights will be emphasised, prior to the information being released.

There will be no sanctions for anyone who contacts their birth mother against her stated wishes, the Minister added.

Mr O’Gorman was speaking at the publication of the General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill, which will encompass a right of access to birth, early life, care, and medical information.

Terre des Hommes reageert op uitzending Nieuwsuur over Biafra-kinderen

27 oktober 2017, 23:00

Carel Kok, directeur van Terre des Hommes: 'Als we de notulen teruglezen, zien we dat het toenmalige bestuur geen voorstander was van de zogenaamde luchtbrug.'

Carel Kok, directeur van Terre des Hommes: 'Als we de notulen teruglezen, zien we dat het toenmalige bestuur geen voorstander was van de zogenaamde luchtbrug.'

In reactie op de uitzending van Nieuwsuur van vandaag bevestigt Terre des Hommes dat de organisatie ten tijde van de burgeroorlog en hongersnood in Biafra (Nigeria) op verzoek van de Nederlandse minister van Justitie Polak de evacuatie en medische verzorging van tien hulpbehoevende kinderen heeft ondersteund.

The Vidyagiri police in Dharwad have arrested six persons, including a couple, over the alleged sale of an infant and remanded them in judicial custody.

The arrested have been identified as Bharati Manjunath Walmiki, 48, Ramesh Manjunath Walmiki, 48, Ravi Bhimsen Hegde, 38, Vinayak Arjun Madar, 27 — all from Dharwad — and Vijay Basappa Negalur, 41, and Chitra Vijay Negalur, 37, residents of Udupi.

According to the police, the accused had given a hand loan of ?50,000 to a couple and had demanded ?1,50,000 in return. The couple could not pay back the amount and the accused forcibly made them sell their one-month-and-ten-day-old baby boy to an unidentified couple for ?2.5 lakh and had taken back their money. Subsequently, the distraught mother complained to the police on Friday about the incident.

Payment for custody

Following this, the police arrested the six persons. The infant has been entrusted to the custody of the Child Protection Committee in the district. The couple from Udupi had allegedly paid money to get the child’s custody.

A total of 11 children have been surrendered to special adoption agencies in Madurai district during the COVID-19 lockdown since March 2020.

Representatives from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the adoption agencies say that the numbers were higher compared to previous year.

Chairman of CWC, Madurai district, K. Vijayasaravanan, says that a major reason cited by parents when they surrender children was loss of livelihood due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Giving an instance, he said that one of the children admitted to a adoption agency was a four-day-old girl child who was surrendered by her parents at the primary health centre in T. Ramanathapuram which is part of Elumalai block on Thursday. The parents said they already had girl children to look after.

According to a data accessed by The Hindu, the children surrendered to the two special adoption agencies in the district- Grace Kennett Hospital and Claretian Mercy Home- include seven girls and four boys.

My name is Winnie (Venkatamma). I was born in India. I was in an orphanage and was about 2 years old when I was adopted by a white Jewish family. Up until about the age of 6, I didn’t understand what my adoption meant. I would tell people that I’m adopted, not knowing there was a whole meaning behind it. I was 6 years old when I understood what my adoption meant. When it happened, everything changed. It was then I realized I had a birth mother who was Indian and had given birth to me, and SHE was my mother, not my adoptive mother.

Everything switched, and I started to become obsessed with wanting to know who she was. I would always ask questions, but my parents would be very quick to change the subject. I know I can speak for a lot of adoptees when I say the trauma of being rejected by our birth parents will never go away. If you’re an adoptive parent, your number one job is to make sure that we don’t feel that rejection again. If you can’t understand that, you have no business adopting. Because I constantly experienced this, it caused me to not want to be close to my adoptive parents. It’s to the point that I don’t care if my yearning for my birth mother hurts them. I helped fill a void for my parents…they’re fine. That’s what adoption is…filling a void for the adoptive parents. No one wants to ask if we’re ok.

I always struggled with identity issues, fitting in, depression, and suicidal thoughts. I definitely feel that if I wasn’t adopted my life would be different and probably better. Adoptees are taken from everything, their culture, family, birth mother, country, and people expect us to be ok. My number one trauma growing up, and still until this day, is not knowing who my birth mother is. It’s been frustrating to know how many birthdays, holidays, graduations, and achievements of mine that she’s missed. No one understands the trauma of not knowing who gave birth to you, other than adoptees. I’m currently in the process of trying to find her, but there’s a lot holding me back from doing it.

I’m learning more about my culture that has caused me to be scared to proceed with my search. Many women in my country are affected by the dowry system, which has caused so many girls to be unwanted, abandoned, aborted, and, worst, killed. I’m definitely afraid that my mother was a victim of this. It’s also the fear of what if she has no interest. I still plan to proceed because, in the end, I need closure answers. Our trauma is ignored because people have been stuck believing that we have a better life, and most of us don’t.

I also want to share my story in the hopes that it will save a life, let adoptees know that they are not alone, and that more adoptees will share their story.

Child rights activists have urged the public not to circulate or fall for fake messages seeking adoption of Covid orphaned children that are increasingly seen on social media in recent times.

They have urged people to report such messages to 1048, clarifying that adoptions take place according to

established norms. Recently, a message asking people to contact a person to adopt a girl child went viral on

social media.

“If anyone wishes to adopt a girl, please feel free to contact 097******73 (Priyanka). One girl is 3 days old, and

Nagpur: Social media has been flooded with messages about children orphaned due to Covid-19 and how people can adopt them by simply reaching out to a number mentioned in the message. Legal experts warn that indulging in any such activity is nothing short of ‘child trafficking’ because adoption involves a very comprehensive legal process.

In India, adoption process is solely under the purview of Centralized Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), which is a statutory body under the Union ministry of women and child development. This agency then has a State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) to coordinate at the local level. So, regardless of a prospective parent approaching an NGO or an orphanage, all applications will ultimately be routed to CARA.

Well-known lawyer Shyam Dewani said if your adoption process is not registered with CARA, then it’s illegal. “The law is very clear and there are two things you must not do. First, don’t forward such messages to anyone regardless of who sent it. Second, don’t ever call on that number because out of the goodness of your heart, you wish to adopt that child,” he said.

“If you do any of these things, then knowingly or unknowingly you become part of a larger criminal conspiracy. And people must use some common sense too that you just can’t call up a number and take home a baby. We are talking about a human being here, not some product on online site,” said Dewani.

These fake or illegal social media messages can get extremely creative to pull at people’s heart strings. Emotional messages about a child being found wandering after both parents died due to Covid-19 and how he needs a new home, are being circulated.

Smriti Irani said anyone who has information about a child whose parents have died of Covid-19 and has no one take care, should inform police and the district child welfare committee.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday urged people to inform police about children who have lost both parents to Covid-19 and have no one to take care of them.

Appealing to the people, the minister said this is a legal responsibility and people should help the government in preventing illegal adoption.

When the 1955 Adoption Act came into force, many M?ori children were separated from their birth parents and became part of non-M?ori families.

Now, a new University of Otago research project, supported by a Marsden grant, is looking to help descendants of M?ori adoptees reconnect with their birth families.

School of M?ori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies Te Tumu researcher Dr Erica Newman said the project was socially significant because it would bring to light the consequences of trans-racial adoption on identity and wellbeing for adoptees and their descendants in New Zealand as they searched for their turangawaewae.

"These adoptees had no knowledge of their M?ori ancestry. And because they were unable to [or chose not to] have contact with their biological wh?nau, their unknown history has not been passed on to their descendants.

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