MPs calling for stop to India adoptions

MPs calling for stop to India adoptions

Monday, 21 June 2010 09:49 RC News

A children’s home and local police in India together helped to carry out illegal adoptions that sent children to Denmark

Members of parliament from both ends of the political spectrum are pushing for a ban on adoptions from India after reports that children have either been stolen or taken from their parents under false pretences.

Government ally Danish People’s Party and the opposition Socialist People’s Party have called for a halt on adoptions from India after revelations made by public broadcaster DR’s ‘21 Søndag’ programme this week.

The most serious allegations of illegally selling children are against children’s home Preet Mandirt in the city of Púne. Indian authorities – who had in 2007 denied that any illegal activity was being conducted by the home – have now arrested a police officer in connection with the case and revoked the home’s right to conduct adoption procedures.

DR originally shed light on problems with adoptions from India in 2007, when it aired a documentary detailing the circumstances of a man who agreed to send his children to Preet Mandirt after his wife died due to complications from childbirth.

He later discovered that the children were no longer at the home and had all been adopted by Danes.

DR’s coverage of the Indian police’s recent arrests and confirmation that the adoptions had taking place illegally prompted the calls for the ban.