Let's not treat children as pets: Bombay high court

Let's not treat children as pets: Bombay high court

Mayura Janwalkar / DNA

Friday, July 2, 2010 0:53 IST

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Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday said that Indians have no right to brag about their culture and heritage, if their children in adoption centres are treated as “commodities”.

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The court was hearing a petition file by NGOs Advait Foundation and Sakhee, which had sought action against Preet Mandir, an adoption centre in Pune.

Peeved at the state of affairs, the court said the government, which is obligated to place children from adoption centres with caring families, had done little to stop it from becoming a “corporate venture”.

“We are very colour-conscious. Adoption centres charge more for a fair baby, while an HIV-positive child is offered at a discount,” justice BH Marlapalle said.

Interestingly, a letter written by government secretary Vandana Krishna to the Central Adoption Resources Agency (Cara), stated: “Even if an adoption agency is run with a selfish or business motive to make money, it is not a crime or illegal. Many schools, colleges, educational institutions, hospitals are run as a business today.”

Krishna’s letter stated that it is not the government’s duty to ensure that NGOs operate on charitable basis, nor is it necessary that adoption agencies should operate incurring losses.

Expressing concern over the 450 children at Preet Mandir, the court had earlier asked Cara to take a decision about the rehabilitation of these children. However, counsel for Preet Mandir told the court that closing the adoption centre — facing allegations of malpractices — would not solve the problem.

“The children are young and attached to the staff of the adoption centre. Many attend school and their psychology needs to be taken into consideration. Children are not vegetables or cattle to shift them from one place to another,” the counsel said.

The court asked the state to frame guidelines on how it plans to monitor private adoption homes. There are 69 adoption centres in Maharashtra.

“The state will have to play a very vital role,” the court said. It also suggested that information regarding adoption homes should be centralised and available online.

Justice Marlapalle said the matter has to be looked at in its totality by the state government. “On the one hand, we must go by the reality — number of unwed mothers, number of families selling children owing to abject poverty. We only hope that these [adoption centres] will not be breeding farms. Let us not treat children as pets.”