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On International Day of Families, SOS Children’s Villages of India, a voluntary child care organisation, launched a campaign to bring to light the hardships faced by children without adequate parental care in India and evoke responses to ensure support for such children.

The NGO estimates that there are currently 2 crore children that do not receive adequate care because they have lost both or either of their parents or their families are unable to take care of them. “If not taken seriously with measures like strengthening the families, or providing abandoned children with a family-like environment in an alternate care home, this figure is estimated to rise to 2.4 crore by the year 2021,” the NGO said while launching the campaign.

“The need is urgent and requires responsible partnership from individuals and corporate besides continuous support from the government,” said Anuja Bansal, secretary general, SOS Children’s Villages of India.

Elaborating on the need to support such children, the NGO said that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in its preamble, recognises the family as the best environment for a child.

Ms. Bansal added that currently SOS India has 440 families under its umbrella that takes care of 26,000 children and it aims to build families for children so that they grow up with love, respect, dignity and security.

"Legal adoptions can also be illegal"

Minister Dekker (Legal Protection) has been investigating illegal adoptions for two weeks. It will be an incomplete study, Elvira Loibl notes today in her dissertation. According to her, "legal" adoptions are not investigated, while many abuses take place there.

"In the Netherlands, adoptions are considered illegal if prospective adoptive parents circumvent the official adoption procedure and include a foreign child in their family without the involvement of a Dutch adoption agency. To cover up their unlawful behavior, they report the birth of the child as if it were their own child, after which they smuggle it to the Netherlands.

Bypassing the official adoption procedure is forbidden as it is particularly susceptible to abuse: often those prospective adoptive parents engage an intermediary - a lawyer or an agent - who exerts financial or emotional pressure on biological parents to get their consent for adoption to gain.

Since 1 May, the Committee for Research on International Adoption has been investigating illegal adoptions of foreign children by Dutch people in the period 1967-1998 and the possible involvement of the government in this.

"Adoption system encourages malpractice to look away"

Criminologist Elvira Loibl leaves no doubt about it. Adoption involves a market. "Children can easily become goods that you can remove from families or pick from the street. They are then often "laundered" by means of documents. Demographic, economic and judicial disparities exist between the country of demand and the country of supply that crime always lurks. "

In her dissertation "The transnational illegal adoption market", on which she obtained her PhD on Wednesday at Maastricht University, Loibl exposes the weaknesses in the Dutch and German adoption systems. Moreover, it comes with recommendations for improvements.

The scientist who grew up in Austria also pays considerable attention to the long-standing story about adoption in the West. "The great belief in huge numbers of children that must be saved," Loibl calls it. "While that orphan crisis in the countries of origin is not nearly as great as we assume. Many children do have parents, but they put them - sometimes temporarily - in institutions for various reasons. Many street children have parents who also live on the street. And supply and demand do not always match: young, healthy babies are the most wanted, but most orphans are older and sometimes have a disability. "

How is it that this story is so deeply rooted in thinking?

in The International Journal of Children's Rights

Author: Sheila Varadan 1

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Online Publication Date: 10 May 2019

Volume/Issue: Volume 27: Issue 2

Australian LGBTI issues by a gay Brisbane lawyer. All about discrimination, parenting, property settlement, same sex domestic violence,same sex law issues.

Thursday, 15 May 2008

National Peak Overseas Adoption Support Group announced

Attorney-General, The Hon Robert McClelland MP, announced the establishment of Australia’s first National Peak Overseas Adoption Support Group.

"I am particularly pleased the Peak Group is being established. It will provide an important, national voice on the complex issues involved in intercountry adoption." Mr McClelland said.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FAMILY AND HUMAN SERVICES

23/09/2005

Adoption of children from overseas

CHAIR —Welcome. It is a great pleasure to have you with us today.

Witnesses were then sworn or affirmed—

(Reuters Health) - Children who are adopted, whether domestically or internationally, have unique healthcare needs that should be assessed as soon as possible, according to new guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Pediatricians and other healthcare workers should play a significant role in the adoption process, the guideline authors emphasize.

“Adopted children often don’t have full medical histories or have experienced trauma in life, which leads to a more complex medical exam when it comes to physical, mental or behavioral concerns,” said lead author Dr. Veronnie Faye Jones of the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

“We’ve learned more in recent years about what prior trauma can do, especially for brain development,” she told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “We should remind families that we’re here to help them along the journey.”

In the new guidance, Jones and co-author Dr. Elaine Schulte of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York City outlined trends in domestic and international adoption. They also review components of the health evaluation, the preadoption visit, the initial medical history review, the initial physical exam and chronic health concerns.

AHMEDABAD: In a strange case, a 39-year-old man, a resident of Vadaj, approached the Gujarat high court seeking custody of his just 3-year-old daughter, who was abandoned by his ex-wife and the child’s mother, at an orphanage in Nadiad.

After hearing the case, Justice V P Patel on Monday stayed the Matruchhaya Orphanage in Nadiad and the superintendent of the Children’s Home, Kheda (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Kheda), from initiating any adoption process for the child.

The HC intervened after the father placed before the court the ‘swaichhik parityag patra’ (deed of surrender) that the mother

signed while leaving the girl at the orphanage. One condition in on the deed says that the signatory who surrendered the child “understands that my child may be adopted by person(s) residing in India or abroad and give my/our consent for this purpose”. It also said that the mother would not object if

the child was handed over to anybody for adoption.

Adoptions were not always "in the best interest of the child"

It is not easy for adopted children to find out the story behind their adoption. Prakash Goossens believes that there is a need for independent historical research in Flanders.

Belgian by adoption from India

Testimonials about fraud concerning adoption documents of Ethiopian and Indian children, an Unicef ??interim director who has to step aside because of "irregularities in the adoption of children from Guatemala" (DS May 13): heavy accusations have recently been made against of adoption services and to the Flemish Community. A "exchange of views" about fraudulent adoptions took place last week in the Flemish Parliament. The conclusion was to acknowledge the testimonials, to extend aftercare for adopted persons and to set up an "expert panel" that investigates irregularities and places them in a historical perspective. Competent Flemish minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V) referred to a similar investigation to historical (sexual) abuse in relationships of trust. He also referred to the research conducted on forced adoptions and the harrowing treatment of metis in the colonial period.

Why is that demand for openness just now? No one can give a ready-made answer, not even after the hastily convened session in parliament. It seems that everyone is doing their best, but nobody wants to take full responsibility.