In search of a better future, six-day-old girl given away by biological parents in Jalgaon to a couple, who forge papers and sell her to a transgender duo — one of whom is lodged in jail currently; two women agents found to be involved in the sale; police catch up with the culprits, arrest them & decide to take responsibility for child’s education; activist says such children are often forced into begging & state should look into matter
If one were to pause and weigh, illegal adoption of children would emerge as an equal menace in society as human trafficking — with both being related somewhere. When the crime branch of the city police rescued a toddler it was a veritable opening of the Pandora’s Box pointing unflinchingly towards both the evils.
The girl child was caught in a rigmarole of illegal adoption for one-and-a-half years after she was given away by her biological parents when she was just six days old. The child travelled to different cities and had three different pairs of parents, including one who is lodged in jail with murder charges at present. She is in safe hands now and the police have decided to educate her by collecting funds themselves.
The enormity of such cases can be gauged from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data which states that 6,533 human trafficking victims were rescued in India last year and 2,877 of them were children. Similarly, 4,709 victims were rescued in 2020 and 2,222 of them were children. The data suggests that such cases, especially of children, have increased by over 27 per cent last year as compared to 2020.
It may be noted that the six-day-old child was given up for adoption in January 2021 to a couple since the parents could not take care of her because of financial constraints. They already had four children. The parents, based in Jalgaon, hoped their child would have a better future if she lived with someone with financial stability. However, it was a case of illegal adoption. Taking advantage of this, the adoptive parents sold the toddler to a transgender couple in Pune by fraudulently making the adoption papers. They claimed it was their child and earned Rs 1.7 lakh through the change of hands.