Adoption is a difficult and lengthy process in India, especially for single women. In January 2014, Dr Mala Sharma (name changed) registered with the Central Adoption Research Agency (CARA) to adopt a child.She had tried private organisations earlier, like Missionaries of Charity, but failed repeatedly. "They'd question why I'm not married, who I stay with, how I'll bring up the child alone," recalls Sharma.

After registering with CARA, her name came up for the first referral in December 2015. A seven-month-old baby at a nearby Shishu Mandir was up for adoption. "They said there's a 48-hour window in which I can come and see the child, else it goes to the next person in queue. At that time each referral gave you a chance to meet three children. Now, only one is introduced. This one was premature so I requested if I could see the other two. By the time they got back, the referral window had expired and the baby went to someone else," recalls Sharma.

She got two more referrals. "Each time, they kept asking the same questions and delayed the process. Once I took my parents and brother with me to show that I do have a family and can take care of a child. But then they pointed out that my parents were old and needed care as well. I was asked how much property I owned, if I planned to get married... Basically , they discourage you if you are single. Or, they try to give you children with health problems that couples don't want," says Sharma. Finally , after three years of dogged effort, Sharma brought a one-and-half-year-old boy home this April. She's now 47.

A recent proposal passed by CARA may now make adoption easier for women like Sharma. Financially able, 40-plus single women will be given preference over others in the adoption process. Deepak Kumar, CEO, CARA, says the number of single women registering for adoption has been increasing in the past few years. "Right now we have a few hundred registered with us. This was an idea of the honorable minister (women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi). We just want to see how we can help single women over 40 with this process," says Kumar, adding that after three months the proposal will be up for a review.

This proposal comes at a time when the Surrogacy Regulation Bill 2016, if passed in Parliament, will ban single men and women from opting for commercial surrogacy , leaving adoption as the only legal way for them to become parents.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Nearly 4,000 children are waiting to be adopted in Texas, a statistic advocates are highlighting in November for National Adoption Month.

About 30 children spent the night in a Child Protective Services office in Travis County because they didn’t have a place to go. Travis County Judge Darlene Byrne said many children are waiting up to two years to find a place with a family, and that the need for foster families is always present. As of Wednesday in Austin, 119 children were waiting for foster homes.

Hyderabad, Nov 6 (PTI) The Hyderabad Police today arrested three persons for allegedly selling a baby girl under the guise of adoption.

The arrested trio included the father of the now four-month-old girl who was allegedly sold to a couple in Visakhapatnam and two brokers, the police said.

The girl has been rescued and re-united with her mother, who had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that her daughter had been sold for Rs 2 lakh, though she had given her away for adoption.

The arrested accused are identified as V Gangadhar Reddy, Shaik Khatoon (both brokers) and Shaik Yousuf, the father of the girl, DCP (South Zone) V Satyanarayana said today.

He said efforts are on to nab other absconding accused.

By some estimates, India is home to between 20 and 30 million orphaned children, the overwhelming majority of whom are orphaned by abandonment, rather than because of the death of their parents.

Lost in a sea of some 400 million children – the largest child population in the world – the outlook is bleak for those left behind. Crippling poverty and poor literacy rates form an unforgiving couple, leading to a vicious circle of child labour, child trafficking and systemic abuse.

Yet, even as India’s population continues to skyrocket, and adoption becomes more accepted within its borders, adoption rates in India have plummeted over the last 7 years.

Over the same period, almost under the radar, the Australian government has upheld a ban on the adoption of children from India, amid a cloud of bureaucratic smoke and mirrors that continues to frustrate prospective adoptive parents and denies some of the world’s most desperate children the chance of a new beginning.

It’s now been seven years since Australia suspended its adoption program with India, when the then Attorney-General placed a hold on applications to India, purportedly in response to ongoing investigations into illegal adoptions and child trafficking.

By Archana More, Pune Mirror | Updated: Nov 7, 2017, 09.51 AM IST

Minor made to work as domestic help rescued from Nanded City

12-year-old girl from Solapur forced into labour for a year by man claiming to be advisor to one Bachpan Bachav Samiti; cops have booked Deshmukh after activists took the child away

Child labour flourishing under the name of 'domestic help' has come to the fore in the city, this time, ironically, at the home of an advisor to a group that claims to advocate against this very crime. In the latest development, a 12-year-old girl was rescued from a home in Nanded City, Sinhagad Road, after city-based activists received a tipoff that a minor had been working for many days at the Lalit building.

On Sunday, members of NGO Sakhee laid a trap and rescued the girl from the house in question, which belongs to an advisor on the Bachpan Bachav Samiti, Abhijitraje Deshmukh, who also happens to be state president of the All India Anti-Corruption Committee (AIACC). According to Sakhee, this is the first case in which a minor being used as domestic help has been rescued in Pune city.

Pune: Members of a non-government organization, Sakhee, and the Haveli police on Sunday rescued a 12-year-old girl from the clutches of a man, forcing her to work at his Sinhagad Road residence as a domestic help.

A team headed by advocate Anjali Pawar, who is leading the non-government organization (NGO), rescued the girl on Sunday afternoon from an upscale housing complex on Sinhagad Road. The girl from Barshi in Solapur district was being tortured by her employer from May 2016.

The suspect and his wife used to beat up the girl regularly. She cried loudly every day, Pawar told TOI. The girl was forced to cook food, wash clothes and take care of children, Pawar said.

A source in the Haveli police said a case had been registered against the employer of the child. The suspect and his family members have fled the scene.

Pawar said the NGO members had kept a watch on the house from June. After a few days, it was confirmed that the family members were inflicting torture and injuries to her.

New Delhi: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has said that there was no need to repeal personal law regarding adoption among Hindus as the “object and purpose” of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) and Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act is different.

Chief Executive Officer of CARA, Lt Col Deepak Kumar said, “There was no problem with the personal law legislation but it needs stricter monitoring mechanism to avoid child trafficking and other such related cases.”

“Hindu mythology talked about 'beta ho gaya toh vansh ko aage badhayega (If a boy is born, he’ll take forward the lineage)'. The act gives parents an opportunity of a lineage. This does not mean that the act should be repealed. If one is a Hindu and wants to give up their child for adoption, then relying on this act is fine. The problem comes, when a middleman enters the picture. Children are sold off and trafficked. The problem is implementation and not the law,” said Kumar.

The CEO’s statement comes close on the heels of reports that the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) is mulling over a proposal to initiate amendments in HAMA. The move is being mulled to repeal the adoption provisions under the Hindu law as it works parallel to the JJ act, which was a common law.

“This is a red alert for the ministry. There cannot be two parallel systems, as it makes it very difficult to check instances of child trafficking. The adoption provisions under HAMA need to be repealed so that adoptions happen only through the JJ Act. We will be moving a proposal to that effect before the Cabinet soon,” said the report which quoted WCD Minister, Maneka Gandhi.

The Pune city police have arrested four persons, including three women and the founder of an orphanage in Saswad, for allegedly trying to sell a one-month-old baby for Rs 3 lakh. Police suspect that the case may be part of a larger racket. Police have identified the accused as Dipti Sanjay Kharat (30), a resident of Sinhagad Road in Khadakwasla, Latika Somnath Patil (23), a resident of Dombivli East, Thane, Asha Nana Ahire (27) of Ulhasnagar, Thane and Keshav Shankar Dhende (42) of Rajiv Gandhi Colony, Mohammedwadi, Hadapsar.

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Acting on a tip-off to police naik Shankar Kumbhar, a team from the Faraskhana police station, led by Senior Inspector Rekha Salunkhe, laid a trap and nabbed four persons near the Kasba Peth ward office of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday. Police rescued the one-month-old baby, a boy, from the four accused.

They were arrested under Section 81 of the Child Justice Act 2015 on Thursday, and produced before the court on Friday. The court remanded the four accused in police custody till January 9.

In this chapter we present our study in an orphanage in India. We examined physical growth and cognitive development in 37 young children (1–6 years; mean age 35 months) and conducted time use observations in a subsample of 20 toddlers (mean age 25 months). In the time use procedure, spot observations focused on toddlers’ daily life experiences. Each child was observed on 1 day during 5 h, once every 10 min, resulting in 31 observations per child. Our findings show that more than a third to half of the children had severe growth delays (underweight, stunted growth, or microcephaly). Their mean developmental quotient (DQ) was 68, with 61% of the children showing a severe delay in cognitive development (DQ < 70). Follow-up assessments revealed that there was no catch-up in physical and cognitive development after more than a year of institutionalization. The time use observations showed that the toddlers did not interact with caregivers or peers most of the time (80%). Based on our findings and convergent evidence from comparable studies, we conclude that children’s daily life experiences in orphanages should be qualified as structural neglect, resulting in profound developmental delays. Placement in (foster or adoptive) family care is necessary to break the cycle of sustained traumatization and to enable the children to recover from their developmental delays.

Keywords

Institutional care Orphanage India Physical growth Cognitive development Time use Developmental delays

(…) the more the social environment in which a human child is reared deviates from the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (which is probably father, mother, and siblings in a social environment comprising grandparents and a limited number of other known families) the greater will be the risk of his developing maladaptive patterns of social behavior.

Bowlby (1982, p. 166).

Animal rights activist and BJP MP, Maneka Gandhi, has expressed concern over the condition of 75-year-old Lila Parulekar, the ailing daughter of the Sakal newspaper’s founder and editor, the legendary Nanasaheb Parulekar.

Gandhi has alleged that Parulekar has become the victim of a conspiracy to swindle her of her multi-crore assets. Many of Parulekar’s close associates and well-known citizens of Pune such as Dr Kunda Patki, Chandrashekhar Hari Joshi and Manoj Oswal share this concern and have spoken on record with DNA.

Parulekar’s lawyer, Sunil Kadam, refused to meet DNA when contacted for an appointment on Thursday last.

A spinster and the sole child of Nanasaheb, Parulekar, who is suffering from secondary Parkinson’s disease among other ailments, has vast assets in her name.

Joshi and Oswal told DNA that apart from 12.2% shares in Sakal Papers Pvt Ltd, the firm founded by her parents, Parulekar owns a bungalow on 3.3 acres of ultra-prime land at 4A Queen’s Garden, Pune, six acres of land in Mahabaleshwar, a one-acre plot on Baner Road, a property in France (her late mother, Shanta was French) and Rs3 crore in the bank.