Adoption agency at it again, now charges ‘donations’

Nisha Nambiar

Posted: May 08, 2012 at 0108 hrs

Adoption agency at it again, now charges ‘donations’Preet Mandir, a Pune-based adoption agency that gained notoreity over alleged malpractices last year, is in the news again for reasons that seem as ignoble as the earlier charges. A CBI chargsheet notwithstanding, the agency, which has permission to give away only 40 children remaining at its Kalyaninagar unit for ‘in-country adoption’, has allegedly been accepting ‘donations’ from parents. This is in gross violation of Child Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) rules.

As per details available with The Indian Express, for 12children who were to be placed under foster care, the agency has charged adoption cost as well as “donations” from parents.The CARA guidelines state that for in-country adoption, there is a Rs 1,000 registration fee, home study report and post-adoption follow-up charges of Rs 5,000, and Rs 40,000 as Child Care Corpus. The total payment to be made to the agency is Rs 46,000. Preet Mandir, however, charged donations (as the agency has labeled the entries in its books) ranging from Rs 17,000 to Rs 1 lakh apart from the adoption cost.Parents who have adopted children from Preet Mandir, however, claim that they were not aware of the rules or the total amount they are supposed to pay the agency.

A parent said that she was asked to pay a donation of up to Rs 1 lakh. “After our process was over, they asked us to pay the over-and-above expenses. As we were keen to complete the process we gave the donation.’’Another parent, who also gave almost Rs 1 lakh, said the agency haddemanded the amount as “maintenance charge”, besides the adoption charge for the child.However, the current managing trustee of Preet Mandir, D P Bhatia, has justified these donations claiming that the agency does not have government aid and hence, depends on ‘donations” to take care of the children. “We have shifted the children to the Kalyaninagar unit from our Camp unit. We were not allowed to keep children older than six at the Camp unit, but at at Kalyaninagar, we can keep children up to 12 years of age. We have permission only for in-country adoptions. If parents are willing to donate to us, we do not refuse them,” said Bhatia.When told about the ‘donations’, CARA deputy director Dr Jagannath Pati said it was against CARA rules. He said it was the state government’s responsibility to take action if the agency was indeed violating rules. “It is a clear case of violation. In no circumstances should any parent be forced to pay donation. The state needs to lookinto this at the earliest,’’ said Pati.The district women and child welfare department is responsible for keeping a tab on such adoption agencies.

However, an official said after the CBI chargesheet, there has hardly been any check on the current activities of the adoption agency. “We have already sent them a notice asking them to furnish details about the adoptions that happened over the last year,’’ said the official.A member of Child Welfare Committee, too, said that ‘taking donations’ is a violation of rules. “How can the agency violate rules again after all that has happened earlier,’’ said the member.

Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Varsha Gaikwad, had recently ordered that all divisions and district-level officers must check the functioning of adoption agencies as well as the number of adoptions done in the last one year. “If any malpractice is found, stern action will be taken against the agency,’’ said a state government official.MurkypastFormer managing trustee of Preet Mandir, Joginder Bhasin and other members was charged by the CBI in an adoption racket last year.

The CBI chargesheet stated that between 2002 and 2010, Bhasin entered into criminal conspiracy with wife Mahinder, son Gurpreet Singh, Vasudev Gangadhar Darshane, social worker Chandrashekar Admane and former chairman of CARA Janindrakumar Mittal to collect children from Maharashtra for adoption and earn huge sums from foster parents. The CBI studied 70 in-country and five inter-country adoption cases of Preet Mandir. The trustees allegedly misappropriated trust’s funds to the tune of Rs 47 lakh. The agency’s licences for foreign adoption and new admissions were cancelled.

 Govt silent on pending adoption cases at Preet Mandir

 Expedite the process on humanitarian grounds, plead adoption experts

 Bhagyashree Kulthe

Even as the Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) has refused to comment on the stalled adoption process of 17 orphans from Preet Mandir, yet another adoption expert has stressed that it is not advisable to shift the children to another adoption agency.
The New Delhi-based Cara, which is the apex government body on adoption issues, has refused to issue No Objection Certificates (NOC) in these 17 cases of inter-country adoption, unless the children are moved to another agency.
This action is the fallout of the revocation of Preet Mandir's inter-country adoption licence in May after the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) latest round of investigations into alleged malpractices in Preet Mandir. While Cara wanted the children be moved to another agency to clear the way for adoption, the Bombay high court issued a stay on the transfer.
Cara's deputy director, Jagannath Pati, refused to comment on the issue when approached by DNA.
As reported by this newspaper on Tuesday (17 orphans suffer silently as adoptions halt at Preet Mandir, September 28), adoption experts have expressed concern that such delays can have an emotionally disastrous impact on these children.
City-based adoption expert, Jyoti Ronghe, told DNA that she has received emails from some of the adoptive parents expressing agony over the delays.
On Tuesday, Lata Joshi, former executive director of Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra, Pune (BSSK) told DNA that shifting the children from Preet Mandir to another adoption agency, as suggested by Cara, can be traumatising for the children.
While upholding the need for scrutiny of the pending cases, she stressed that the government and the law needs to speed up the process in the larger interest of the children.
Joshi, who runs an informal support group, Anuj, for adoptees and adoptive parents in India and overseas, has vast experience in child welfare and adoption. "The children should be counselled and proper care provided till the case is resolved. The children are not being considered in the entire legal process. It is difficult for a child to adjust to a new environment with new people when they are shifted to another agency," she said, adding that  disturbing the life of the children is not advisable.
The veteran adoption expert emphasised that the welfare of the children should come first while deciding their case. "Their entire future is in the hands of the authorities, the government and the adoption agency," she said.
Joshi said a review of the cases in the pipeline is important and this should be done while the children remain at Preet Mandir. "However, the authorities concerned should speed up the process," she said.
She regretted that the children had become victims of the corrupt system. "The local authorities are responsible for proper scrutiny before forwarding the proposals for the NOC to Cara. Because the entire system responsible for adoption is now under the scanner, it is the children and the adoptive parents who are forced to suffer," she said.
The senior adoption expert stressed on the need for proper counselling for the children. "Just providing food and clothing is not enough. Their emotional needs have to be considered. An expert in child welfare and care needs to counsel the children," she said.The HC has stayed transfer of children from Preet Mandir