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A must read

• RoeliePost
• 7 april 2020

Positieve punten

• Meeslepend verhaal
• Goede verhaallijn

De invoering van de Adoptiewet in 1956, op voorstel van de Federatie voor Instellingen voor Ongehuwde Moeders in Kind (FIOM) en International Social Services (ISS-NL), zorgde voor veel leed. Eugenie Smits van Waesberghe laat in haar boek betrokkenen aan het woord. De lezer stapt binnen in een wereld vol leugens, pijn, ontkenning en vernedering. Moeders die onder grote druk hun kinderen ‘afstaan’. Eens volwassen gaan vele kinderen op zoek naar hun afstammingsgegevens en/of hun ouders. Een niet gemakkelijke zoektocht, waarbij vele hindernissen worden opgeworpen. Een traumatische familiegeschiedenis die haar sporen van generatie op generatie overdraagt.

Het is in en in triest te moeten constateren dat dit zwarte hoofstuk in de Nederlandse geschiedenis had kunnen worden voorkomen. In 1954 waren er van verschillende kanten grote twijfels bij de noodzaak van een adoptiewet. Kinderrechters zagen in de onherroepelijkheid van adoptie een groot probleem. Het aannemen van de adoptiewet zou een stap terug zijn in de moderne wetgeving, omdat het voorbij ging aan het belang van de bloedband en het weten van wie men afstamt.
Echter, de politiek liet zich overreden door pressie-groepen die van mening waren dat de gezinsband belangrijker was dan bloed.

Toen in de jaren zeventig het aanbod van kinderen opdroogde, werd de vraag naar adoptie-kinderen verplaatst naar het buitenland. En hetzelfde patroon herhaalde zich. Er ontstond een vraaggestuurde markt, waar kinderen onder dwang of misleiding werden ‘afgestaan’. Of op andere wijzes hun ouders ontnomen.

Zoals Eugenie aangeeft nemen gedane zaken geen keer, maar is het nu tijd voor erkenning. En het leren van fouten. En het dan niet weer doen... de geschiedenis van kinderhandel moet zich niet telkens herhalen.

Ik raad een ieder aan dit belangrijke boek te lezen. Het is een deel van de geschiedenis die we onder ogen moeten zijn. Opdat we niet vergeten.

Roelie Post, Klokkenluider Kinderrechten Europese Commissie
Auteur van 'Romania for Export Only, the untold story of the Romanian 'orphans'"

Author: Dama Seshadri Naidu

Bench: Dama Seshadri Naidu

                                              4. FAP No. 17 of 2021    IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY        ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION                        AND     IN ITS GENERAL AND INHERENT JURISDICTION        FOREIGN ADOPTION PETITION NO. 17 OF 2021                        WITH             JUDGE'S ORDER NO. 106 OF 2021Janani Ashish Charitable Trust               ...Petitioner        VersusFrederic Christian B. Delvaux, Belgian and   ...Proposed                                             Adoptive parentsAnr. And Flore Aachal Anelle Maureen(Minor)                          .....Mr. Rakesh Kapoor - Advocate for the Petitioner.Mr. O. Hareendran Nambiar, Scrutiny Officer, IndianCouncil of Social Welfare, present.Mr. D. R. Talekar - Chamber Registrar, present.                          .....                   CORAM : DAMA SESHADRI NAIDU, J.

DATE : 08th JULY 2021.

P.C. :

Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, parents who cannot care for their newborns can legally surrender them to any authorised adoption agency or Child Welfare Committee (CWC) office.

In recent months, Mumbai has witnessed a disturbing rise in cases of newborns being found abandoned in various parts of the city — from railway station areas to secluded lanes and public toilets. These incidents raise serious social and moral questions about the safety net for vulnerable infants and the desperation that drives some parents to such extreme actions.

Between late September and October, four such incidents were reported across the city.

On October 27, a newborn baby girl was found in a nullah at Ashokvan, Borivali East, and was immediately rescued and taken to Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali West. The investigation revealed that the child’s parents the mother, a domestic help, and the father, a daily wage labourer had abandoned the baby due to financial distress. The couple already had three daughters and had given birth to a fourth girl.

On October 20, a newborn girl with ant bites was discovered behind Anthony Tower in Malad West. She was rushed to Shatabdi Hospital, and police registered a case against an unidentified person.

KOLKATA: Bengal has one of the highest rates of child adoption in the country but couples continue to be reluctant to adopt children who are six years or older.

 

Functionaries of Atmaja, an association for adoptive parents that was formed 25 years ago to share their experiences with couples seeking to adopt and answer their queries on procedures before the adoption and challenges thereafter, said most couples were willing to wait up to four years after submitting their application for adoption when they can become a parent in a matter of weeks if they agree to adopting an older child.

"Couples usually go for adoption when they have spent 10 years to have a child. That means they are already in their late 30s or early 40s. If they were to adopt a six-seven year-old child, it could happen in a matter of days as there are many children of that age waiting for adoption. Also, the age gap between the parents and the child would be less. Unfortunately, most couples prefer to wait for years to adopt a child who is younger. We are trying to counsel parents to adopt older children because they too deserve a home," said former Jadavpur University prof and adoptive parent Nilanjana Gupta who was the founder chairperson of Atmaja.
 

For many, the wait can make them ineligible as the combined age of the husband and wife adopting a child of under 2 years cannot exceed 85 years. For a child of 2-4 years, the maximum combined age of adopting parents is 90 years. Also, the keenness to adopt only children below four years leaves many older kids without a home.

"We also tell couples seeking to adopt that one of the major dilemmas that parents face over when and how to disclose to the children that they are adopted is not there in the case of older children as they already know they are being adopted," said Anup Dewanji, a retired prof at ISI and an adoptive parent who is now chairman of Atmaja.

Saumeta Medhor of adoption agency The Indian Society for Sponsorship & Adoption, says the biggest challenge is couples want to adopt a child who is a clean slate with no memories. "A child of six-seven years will have memories of the biological family or past experiences. Only 1% of couples look for an older child and they do so because they are ineligible for someone younger," she said.

The couple, who had lovingly raised Prabhat since childhood, are now battling for their lives in the hospital.

In a heart-wrenching incident, a retired couple in Assam’s Marikalang, Nagaon, faced a horrific betrayal at the hands of their own adopted son. 

Harendranath Bora and his wife, Dipti Bora, both retired from the Education Department, were brutally attacked and robbed by their adopted son, Prabhat Hazarika. 

The couple, who had lovingly raised Prabhat since childhood, are now battling for their lives in the hospital. 

As per reports, Prabhat, who had been living in Karbi Anglong, recently sought Rs 50,000 from his parents for his ailing wife’s treatment. 

INTERVIEW

Rani T'Kindt was adopted and has to arrange her biological father's funeral in India: “How is this possible?”

Rani T'Kindt was adopted from India as a toddler by Belgian parents. This week, she was contacted by Indian authorities, who asked her to arrange her biological father's funeral. "How did they end up with me?"

Veerle Beel

November 7, 2025 at 11:59 PM

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

CONSTITUTION OF 4 OCTOBER 1958

TWELFTH LEGISLATURE

Registered at the Presidency of the National Assembly on April 11, 2006

INFORMATION REPORT

Current question

Current questionabout the uncertainties surrounding international adoption

95 (2025-2026)

from Freya Perdaens to Minister Caroline Gennez

• View document sheet

How Mumbai was once central to Swiss intercountry adoptions—and the questions that remain

Asha Sadan is a Mumbai landmark, inseparable from the city’s history. Located in Dongri, it is a place I have often passed—familiar yet easy to overlook. Established in 1921 by an Indian women’s association, it has long sheltered women and children, particularly unmarried mothers and their babies. Many of these children were placed for adoption, sometimes within India but often abroad.

I flipped through Mother Unknown: Adoption of Children from India in the Swiss Cantons of Zurich and Thurgau, 1973–2002. As I was drawn in by its focus on Mumbai and the children adopted overseas, I noticed the cover image—Asha Sadan. Two of the authors were credited with the photograph, though it does not explicitly identify the building, perhaps for the right reasons. The open-access book is edited by Andrea Abraham, Sabine Bitter and Rita Kesselring and published by Chronos Verlag (Zurich).

Asha Sadan’s sponsoring association, the Maharashtra State Women’s Council, was chaired by the Swiss Alice Khan-Meier. It was a popular adoption agency for many Swiss couples

Based on a study commissioned by the two Swiss cantons, Mother Unknown investigates intercountry adoptions, exposing legal and ethical lapses that left many adoptees without a clear record of their origins. It revisits cases of Indian children sent to Switzerland, and questions authorities which neglected safeguards in these adoptions; there is also a focus on serious consequences for those who grew up with incomplete, false or untraced identities.