Adoption row: Anupama seeks removal of Child Welfare Council officials, to resume agitation

Thiruvananthapuram: Former student activist Anupama S Chandran is

preparing for another round of agitation, this time before the office of

the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare over the controversial

adoption of her child.

She alleged that the inquiry into the case was not going on in the right

direction, adding that it went against what had been promised by the

government earlier.

Anupama said she would launch an agitation, demanding removal of the

chairperson and general secretary of the Council for Child Welfare from

their posts and protection of her child by the State Government. She

alleged that both of them continued to cling on to their respective posts

to scuttle the ongoing probe.

She pointed out that the Council for Child Welfare denied reply to the

police's questions on the adoption process involving her child on the

pretext of legal immunity. The Child Welfare Committee also did not

reply to the police's queries on adoption.

The reply furnished by the Council was that they received an abandoned

baby boy at the 'Ammathottil' on the date which was mentioned by

Anupama in her complaint. But no replies were given to questions like

the present whereabouts of the baby and whether the boy was given for

adoption.

The Council replied that they have the legal immunity in not replying to

these questions and if necessary, the police can approach the Child

Welfare Committee. Though the police gave a letter to the Child Welfare

Committee requesting them to respond to these questions, there was no

reply.

The issue

It has been alleged that Anupama's parents had taken away her threeday-old baby born out of wedlock in October 2020 and handed him over

to the Child Welfare Panel, which gave him to a couple seeking to adopt

a child. She alleged it was done without her knowledge or consent, and

the authorities failed to act on her complaint for six months.

Anupama's parents had been opposed to her relationship with Ajith, a

divorcee, who was a former local leader of the CPM and its youth wing

Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). She gave birth to a child

when in a relationship with Ajith.

Anupama was associated with the Students' Federation of India, CPM's

student wing

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