KOLKATA: A 51-year-old man, rescued from a life on the streets in Kolkata by a shelter and then adopted by a Swiss couple when he was just six, has planned a trip to the city of his birth to trace his biological family.
Samim Pantellini, who works in a warehouse in Basel, plans to visit during Durga Puja (in early October) to try and glean information abut the children’s shelter, from where he was adopted. But he knows his search wouldn’t be very easy.
 

All he knows is that the adoption centre was in Narkeldanga, and that the plot on which it once stood now houses the BC Roy Memorial Hospital for Children. Secondly, he does not have any files or records that could throw light on his birth or the circumstances of his early life. To make matters more complicated, he speaks only very little English, Bengali or Hindi. “I have been trying to trace my next of kin in Kolkata for a long time,” he told TOI from Switzerland. “Unfortunately, I do not know my surname, as I’m not able to remember anything from my early childhood, probably because of trauma endured from living on the streets. I can’t even remember any words from my native language Bengali.”
He remembers his parents telling him, though, that he was from the slums neighbouring the adoption facility.

“From that, I figured out that I must’ve been living around Narkeldanga, Kankurgachi, Phoolbagan, Ultadanga, Bagmari... probably living on the streets,” he said.
Pantellini has spread the word on social media. Subhajit Das, a local resident, saw one such post on Facebook and has offered his help. “Observing the migratory patterns of the area around the adoption centre, it is safe to assume that Samim may not have come from a Bengali-speaking family. There are a number of Urdu speakers and also those who migrated and settled in the nearby slums from neighbouring states. There have been repeated waves of railway workers, who settled around Phoolbagan from other states,” Das said.

The year is 2023: a major adoption scandal has unfolded in Hania, Crete. The adoption traffic may have been going on for the past 10 years? Ten years? How about 70 years? Adoption in and from Greece is celebrating a bizarre anniversary this year. Let me take you back to 1953, back 70 years ago.

1953: On the frontline

What significance does the date of 1953 bear for Greece? And why does an adoptions scandal in 2023 mark a sad anniversary? And a reminder of lack of action taken? Also, how does the 1953 date place Greece in the wider context of global twentieth-century history? This article discusses the historic adoption movement of postwar Greece, a movement that then-current terminology named “intercountry adoption,” but that today is referred to as international adoption and is associated with transcultural and/or transracial child placements. All these terms are somewhat unsatisfactory, if not misleading, given that the modern international child adoption flow is not one of multilaterism, or even bilateralism, but is usually conducted in a one-way direction that invalidates the “inter” or the “trans” of the lofty definitions.

The post-WWII adoption history of Greece, which remained underexplored for decades, was characterized by the same unilateral flows: some 4,000 Greek children left their country for adoption in the United States after 1950, and another 600 children left for adoption in the Netherlands. Small numbers of Greek adoptees were raised in other countries, such as Sweden, France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Canada or Australia. Greece ended its overseas adoption programs around 1975, but has since been a so-called receiving country. Is this news? For many, yes. It really shouldn’t be: Nikos Konstandaras (Kathimerini English Edition) wrote on this topic in 1996. Mary Theodoropoulou and Aigli Brouskou documented it in their publications. What is news is that nothing substantial has ever been done to redress the past of Greece’s adoption history of the 1950s and 1960s. With what kind of hope does that leave the victims of today’s scandal?

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 6461 OF 2023

The chair of a parliamentary committee looking into past forced adoption practices in WA is facing calls from a group of adoptee campaigners to step down from the inquiry.

It’s been revealed Peter Foster – a WA politician who chairs the state’s Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs – used an overseas commercial surrogate to have a child.

Forced adoption survivor Jen McRae believes it presents a conflict of interest, as similar issues can be faced by children who were forcibly adopted and children born via commercial surrogacy.

LiSTNR News has spoken with Ms McRae, and other adoptees who claim both children of forced adoption and commercial surrogacy can experience issues around trauma, attachment and identity.

Commercial surrogacy is illegal across Australia.

The Kerala High Court recently held that a legal heirship certificate cannot be granted to an adopted person in the absence of valid documents that prove the adoption [Prameela L v State of Kerala & Ors.].

A division bench consisting of Justices Alexander Thomas and C Jayachandran passed this order while considering a plea moved by a woman (petitioner) challenging the decision of the Tahsildar refusing to grant her legal heir certificate.

In order to apply for a compassionate appointment under a dying-in-harness scheme, the petitioner had approached the Tahsildar for a legal heir certificate to declare that she was adopted by her late stepfather, Gopalan.

However, the Tahsildar refused to grant her legal heir certificate on the ground that she did not produce valid documents to prove that she was adopted.

Bufetat has now opened the door for advice and guidance to adoptees and their adoptive families. When I read the information on the websites, I was left with more questions than answers.

It is possible that I have become cynical, but for now my thought is: Well.

The information on the page is not exactly comprehensive. I called to ask my questions and was able to speak to a pleasant adviser.

Inquiries have increased considerably

The service that has now been created is primarily to refer to already existing offers that you can turn to. Which offers there should be is more unclear to me.

Frank, 22, and Victoria, 19, were adopted separately in the early 2000s, and only recently learned discovered they're biological siblings

A brother and sister who were adopted into the same family as babies recently discovered they are actually biological siblings.

Frank, 22, and Victoria, 19, were adopted separately by parents Angela and Dennis in the early 2000s, according to CBS affiliate WCBS and ABC affiliate WABC.
 

The siblings recently decided to learn more about their family history through DNA testing, only to make the shocking discovery, FOX affiliate WNYW reported.

"We were both found a year and a half apart and wound up in the same family," Frank said, per WNYW. "The odds are insane."

The Arrow of God Community Children’s Home in Onitsha has been closed down over allegations of illegal adoption and selling of children.

The Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo,   led security operatives to seal off the structure on Wednesday, after a report and documentary by Fisayo Soyombo made the rounds on social media and local television .

The report also accused  the state Ministry of Women and Social Welfare of involvement  in an illegal adoption of a baby girl alongside one of her registered homes in the state.

A new born baby was among about 20 children   recovered from the orphanage operator, while the founder and the employees had fled and are currently at large.

The children recovered were between the ages of one and 17 years; ten boys, nine girls, and a newborn baby.

The commissioner said that a total of 20 children, comprising of 10 boys, nine girls and a newborn were rescued from the facility and were currently in the ministry’s custody.

Anambra Government on Wednesday sealed an orphanage home, Arrow of God Community Children’s Home at Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government Area.

Mrs Ify Obinabo, state’s Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, while speaking to Reporters after sealing the facility, said the licence of its owner had also been withdrawn indefinitely.

Obinabo said the action followed a news report accusing the ministry of involvement in illegal adoption of a baby girl in connivance with one of the registered homes in the state.

She added that the founder of the orphanage home, Rev. Deborah Ogo, presently at large, had ignored her invitation to explain.

MUMBAI: The Bhoiwada police have arrested four persons, including three women, allegedly involved in illegal adoption of a seven- day-old baby.
The accused made a fake agreement on a stamp paper to make it look like a genuine adoption. The biological mother of the boy, who is from Pratapgarh in UP, is among those arrested.
 

Those arrested are Bhiwandi residents Rubina Akhtar (26), Irshad Istiaq Rangrez (33), his wife Tahira (28) and Heena Parveen (28), the mother of the baby from UP. They have been charged with child trafficking, criminal conspiracy and negligence.
The crime came to light when Rangrez and Tahira, who are childless, brought the baby to Wadia Hospital for jaundice treatment. On inquiry, Tahira told doctors that she had adopted the baby from her sister-in-law.

The doctors asked them to get an NOC from the police. The cops got suspicious and upon a thorough probe found that it was a case of illegal adoption.