Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday declared a minor girl ‘free for adoption’, clearing the decks for a city-based couple to adopt the child. This comes after the couple was stuck in procedural glitches post the modifications in the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Nitin Sambre said, “We declare this two-and-a-half-year-old girl child free for adoption. She can now be adopted by foster parents, after following the due procedure of law, by making a proper plea in a competent court. We hope the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) cooperates with the foster parents and grant a no objection certificate to them.” Judges were hearing a writ petition moved by an Andheri-based NGO Shantighar Social Society, urging the court to declare the girl free for adoption.

According to the NGO, her biological mother had been to their shelter home when she was pregnant by six months. The mother wanted to abort her pregnancy, however, post to the NGO’s counselling, she decided to give birth to the child and hand over it for adoption. But post her delivery, she did not fill in the requisite form and since then has been untraceable. This acted as a hurdle for the couple in adopting the child as she was not declared free for adoption by her biological mother, which in turn compelled the NGO to move the HC.

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Srinagar, Feb 06: Two of the three babies abandoned at the Lal Ded (LD) Hospital here last month have finally been adopted.

In January, two girls and a boy were found in the premises of the hospital.

Since then, the hospital staff has been taking care of them.

A senior official, requesting not to be quoted by name, told The Kashmir Monitor that the boy and a girl were adopted by two childless couples.

“It’s nice to see childless parents coming forward and adopting the babies. Although the boy is still with us, the girl has been taken by her new parents,” the official revealed.

An adopted child is a legal heir of a parent, the Madras High Court has said. The adopted child must get all rights like a biological child, the court also said. Justice K Ravichandrabaabu gave the ruling while allowing a petition from M G Mamtha and her adopted daughter C Soundarya challenging the rejection of their application for grant of legal heir certificate by a revenue department official. The judge directed the tehsildar of Dhenkanikottai in Krishnagiri district to issue the legal heir certificate to them which they had applied after the death of Mamtha's husband and adoptive father of Soundarya last year. The tehsildar had rejected the application on the ground that the second respondent being an adopted daughter cannot be considered as Class I heir as per the Hindu Succession Act. Mamtha and her husband S Chandrasekar had adopted Soundarya, daughter of the former's brother, in 1987 as per the family's custom and a deed of adoption was entered into on November 24, 1994. The judge said a perusal of the Hindu Succession Act and the decision of the Supreme Court would show without any ambiguity that an adopted child, from the date of the legal adoption, becomes the child of adoptive father or mother for all purposes. It should be borne in mind that such adopted child is the child of the adoptive family by legal creation, which confers all rights on the adopted child as a biological child.Soundarya becomes the Class I heir of the deceased and thus, entitled to get her name also included in the heirship certificate, he said, directing issuance of the document.

Read more at: https://www.oneindia.com/india/adopted-and-biological-children-have-similar-rights-madras-hc-2636396.html

COIMBATORE: An HIV positive mother has abandoned her 38 days old baby boy at a private orphanage located at Ramanathapuram here. The baby was handed over to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) on Wednesday. Doctors there said the child was healthy.

Resident medical officer, CMCH, Soundaravel said they were yet to ascertain if the baby was HIV positive. "We will conduct the tests soon. After that, the baby will be handed over to the child welfare committee. But, we will treat and monitor the child for 18 months. Another set of tests will be conducted then to ascertain if the baby has contracted the disease," he said.

According to Soundaravel, as many as 12 babies were abandoned in the city last year. "They were admitted to Don Bosco Anbu Illam and almost all of them are getting education in government and corporation schools. In 2016, 11 babies had been abandoned," he said and added the cases of HIV positive mothers abandoning their babies were not common in the city.

R Riyaz of orphanage Mercy Home said that the 22-year-old woman had given birth to the child in Theni. Her husband left her as she had been travelling to various cities and staying in orphanages. "Childline sent the woman and the baby to Mercy Home on January 20. On 28, she left the home saying she wanted to visit her family in Pollachi. As she did not return, we informed officials and handed over the baby to the CMCH," Riyaz said.

He said the stigma of HIV was still persistent in the society. "Even rich families abandon children. We have 30 children aged between 5 and 21 in our home. Four months ago, we helped a woman and man, both HIV positive, to get married. They are planning a baby as well. Now there is treatment to ensure HIV negative child for such couple," Riyaz said.

New Delhi: A news report about a Kerala mother selling her four-day-old baby for Rs 1 lakh to a childless couple from Tamil Nadu has prompted the National Human Rights Commission to issue notices to both state governments and the Centre.

The commission has observed that the alleged sale violated the baby's human rights and adoption laws.

It issued the notices on Thursday to the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, seeking a detailed report on the alleged sale. They are to also mention what action had been taken in similar cases in the past, if any.

A notice has been sent also to the secretary in the Union women and child development ministry seeking a report on the matter.

The commission has specifically asked about the monitoring mechanism in place at the Central Adoption Resource Authority, the nodal statutory body overseeing adoptions, for the protection of children against the misuse of adoption laws.

Resources Authority (CARA) and District Women and Child Welfare Committee busted a racket of human-trafficking in which a homoeopathic doctor was allegedly involved in selling newborn babies at a hospital, following a raid in Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur, on Tuesday. He confessed to selling a new-born to a couple in Mumbai.

A case has been filed against him, his wife and the couple who adopted the baby, police said. Police said the couple will be arrested after interrogation. The doctor, Arun Patil, confessed to selling two babies in three months. He said he charged Rs 2 lakh for a baby.

Priyadarshini Chorage, district head of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), who was part of the team that conducted the raid at General Surgical and Maternity Hospital, said they received information from CARA officials about the illegal activities on Monday. "When we entered the hospital and asked Patil about the racket, he confessed. He claimed he was doing it in the interest of society and it was for free. He used to facilitate deliveries for unmarried women and would then sell the babies. He used to hand over the money received to the mother."

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"He confessed to selling a four-day-old baby to a family in Chhattisgarh on December 23, 2017. The baby, born to a minor, was sold for Rs 2 lakh," she said. He also confessed to selling a newborn to a couple in Mumbai but has not revealed the details, she added.

IN THE COURT OF SMT. PRATIBHA RANI

DISTRICT JUDGE-I : DELHI

GUARDIANSHIP CASE No. 54/2011

Unique I.D No.02401C0093032011

IN THE MATTER OF:

NEW LIVES: Indian children adapt wellAdoption fulfils two of man's deepest needs - the craving for parenthood and a child's desire to belong.

Add to that the pressures of the 21st century and it is not surprising that Indian children are increasingly being adopted by the richest countries. Inter-country adoption, in fact, is a highly profitable business.

In the US and Denmark, the number of Indian children being adopted has grown in the past few years. In 1999-2000, the traffic to the US more than doubled and increased by a third to Denmark.

Since 1969, 15 per cent of adoptions by the Swedish agency Adoptions Centrum were from India. India follows Colombia and Philippines in the number of children being adopted by Norwegians since 1972.

Click here to Enlarge

Born and abandoned in Mumbai, reborn in Sweden, Erika Sandberg says she is Indian on the outside, but feels Swedish on the inside.

Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel narrates her tale.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Illustration: Dominic Xavier

In August 1976, a Swissair jet flew out of the monsoon skies of Bombay, due west, with a precious little bundle onboard.

joint committee of Parliament has given its approval to changes in the Indian Adoption of Children Bill which after going to the Union Cabinet has been presented to both the Houses in the monsoon session of Parliament. The Bill will make adoption of children legal among all communities in the country.

At present only Hindus have a law which permits a couple to take a child and make him their legal heir. This law only places the child in the foster care of adults and does not bestow upon him the right of inheritance. It also does not guard the parents against losing the child, as they are legally only its guardians.

This Bill, which smoothens out the many legal twists that prevents destitute children from being adopted by a proper home, was drafted twelve years ago. The Bill was finally introduced in Parliament, not got legislative sanction so far, due to filibustering by members who saw in it the opening of the flood gate for Indian children going abroad as cheap labour.

The Indian Council for Child Welfare, a leading organization that handles adoption, helped 99 parents between 1963 and 1973 to take up destitute and orphan children under foster care. Of these, only 11 were Indian couples and the rest were from Sweden, France, West Germany, USA and Belgium.

Under Indian law, none of the children going abroad were legally "adopted" before they left the country. They were only placed in foster care of the families which finally adopted them under their country's law. The new Bill makes a district court the authority to pass an "Adoption order". In the case of foreigners it will issue an interim order which will have to be finalized by the adoption law of the land of the parents.