Fake adoption posts under cop scanner

Kolkata: The detective department has launched a probe into social media posts appealing for adoption of children orphaned

during the pandemic. The probe was ordered by joint CP (crime), Murlidhar Sharma, after a Twitter user lodged a complaint in

this regard and shared a contact number with him.

Activist Sumita Dutta Basu lodged the complaint on May 20 through Twitter. She said that the adoption message had been

circulating on social media for about a month even though it was illegal to adopt children in such a manner. “The message is

about adopting a two-year old boy and a two-month-old girl whose parents have died due to #Covid-19. I know this type of

adoption is illegal and might aid child-trafficking,” she wrote in her complaint, tagging the senior Kolkata Police officer.

In another follow up tweet, she also shared one such number floated on social media. “The detective department is looking

into the matter,” Sharma replied.

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Activists working on child rights and trafficking have expressed concerns over how social media has been flooded with citizens

sharing the details of the children who have lost either both their parents or the only living parent to Covid-19 and pleading for

their adoption.

Activists have repeatedly warned that such posts are illegal under Section 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015,

which prohibits offering or receiving children outside the processes laid down under the Act as well as their sale and purchase.

Such acts are punishable with maximum punishment up to five years in jail and/or Rs1 lakh fine

West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairperson, Ananya Chakraborti, said that most of the news on

orphans doing the rounds in the social media were fake but warned that any attempt to adopt a child without following the due

process, even if the intention is good, is illegal and a criminal offence.

“If a child is orphaned or his or her parents are in hospital and the child is too young to stay alone and there is no one to look

after, cops have to be informed and they will in turn inform the child welfare committee that will decide where and with whom

the child can stay. In case the child needs to be adopted, he or she will stay in a home till the adoption happens. For teenagers

whose adoption is difficult in our society, foster homes are an option. But again, it has to be through Child Welfare Committee,”

said Chakraborti.

Bivas Chatterjee, special public prosecutor has already come out with a Bengali podcast to explain the Covid-related cyber

crimes. “Such adoption messages are illegal. The committee has to be involved in such process,” he said. “When there is a

child without a family, the state becomes the guardian. If an orphaned child is brought home without following the process

under the JJ Act, the government will take his or her custody,” said child rights activist, Neena Nayak.

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