{"id":2238,"date":"2007-01-01T08:21:31","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T08:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.againstchildtrafficking.org\/?p=2238"},"modified":"2011-04-09T08:24:15","modified_gmt":"2011-04-09T08:24:15","slug":"child-trafficking-in-india-has-a-new-guise-to-wear-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/child-trafficking-in-india-has-a-new-guise-to-wear-adoption\/","title":{"rendered":"Child trafficking in India has a new guise to wear: adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"
Date: 2007-01-01<\/div>\n
Source: majebal.org<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\nPoor families are duped of their children, who are declared orphans and put up for adoption by families who can pay in thousands<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Renuka, 18, lost her three younger sisters to an adoption racket. An Italian couple took the help of Preet Mandir, an adoption and child welfare agency in Pune, to adopt the sisters. CNN-IBN, in several reports since last year, had exposed Preet Mandir for selling children in the name of adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n

The way it tricked Renuka\u2019s parents proves it is still operating its racket. It promised to educate Renuka\u2019s sisters but then asked their father, who can\u2019t read, to sign on papers which said he was giving them away for adoption. The girls were then declared orphans.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople from Preet Mandir came and took away my sisters. They said they would educate them. My uncle visited them twice but then people at Preet Mandir they said don\u2019t come here again because the children are getting disturbed,\u201d says Renuka.<\/p>\n

Guidelines framed by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), the watchdog on adoptions in India, say siblings should be kept together if possible, but a family court in Pune strangely forgot to mention Renuka when permitting her sisters to be adopted.<\/p>\n

Preet Mandir, in a document, declared that Renuka\u2019s parents were dead and their father had given all his children to the welfare agency before his death. The document said Rani was the eldest sibling in the family and Indian families had refused to adopt either her or her siblings because she was HIV positive.<\/p>\n

CARA bought this lie and gave a no-objection certificate to Preet Mandir. \u201cThey took my father\u2019s signature on a paper but he could hardly read as he had only studied up to Class III,\u201d says Renuka.<\/p>\n

Renuka\u2019s parents are dead and her sisters are in a foreign country. Her grandfather Bhagwan Chougali takes care of her now. \u201cI have everything in my house. I cook for them and I can provide for them but I can’t do without them,\u201d says Chougali.<\/p>\n

Renuka\u2019s was cheated of her sisters, and Lakshmi Solanki of her infant daughter. Laksmi gave Priyanka to Love Trust, a childcare centre in Buldhana, Maharashtra, temporarily after she was severely burnt by her husband.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I am not in good health and so gave my child to the childcare centre but they put her up for adoption,\u201d alleges Renuka. Priyanka\u2019s parents are alive but a relinquishment deed by Love Trust has \u201cfreed\u201d her for adoption. The trustees of Love Trust told CNN-IBN CARA guidelines allow them to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn a period of two months that they can come and claim the baby. Our basic aim is the baby\u2019s adoption. We cannot keep the baby with us forever,\u201d says Dr Seema Agashe, Gynecologist and Trustee, The Love Trust.<\/p>\n

Snatched away in Satara<\/p>\n

CNN-IBN then travelled to Karad and met Kisabai Lokhande, who had kept her granddaughters, Ashwini and Komal, at an observation home in Satara. She discovered days later that her girls had been moved to Preet Mandir.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I met them in Pune, my elder granddaughter Komal said not to worry for her because Preet Mandir was taking good care of them. Preet Mandir people said don\u2019t worry about your granddaughters and don\u2019t visit them because you are poor and will waste money on travel,\u201d says Kisabai.<\/p>\n

Preet Mandir then put out a newspaper notice, which said Kisabai had 30 days to reclaim her grandchildren and they would be given for adoption if she didn\u2019t respond on time. Preet Mandir knew Kisabai would never see the ad.<\/p>\n

Kisabai\u2019s granddaughters were given to a couple in Spain who don’t know they had been conned by child traffickers. \u201cI miss them a lot. I have lost my appetite and I keep falling ill. I will do anything to get them back. I had sent them to the observation home so that they go to school, not abroad,\u201d says Kisabai.<\/p>\n

Poverty and illiteracy are endemic in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. It is a potent combination that makes this a preferred hunting ground for the baby snatchers.<\/p>\n

Baby snatchers will spare none to keep the money coming. When Govind\u2019s parents died of HIV, his anganwadi teacher took him to a child welfare home in Parbhani for care. \u201cThe people at the welfare home told us do not come here for at least four months. If you do the child will cry and insist on leaving the welfare home,\u201d says anganwadi teacher Suprabha Manikrao Wakhde.<\/p>\n

Within months Govind was transferred to Preet Mandir and sold to an Italian couple. The Parbhani Police says Govind\u2019s adoption papers were in order and that his uncle had not responded to Preet Mandir\u2019s 30-day notice period. <\/span><\/p>\n

Govind’s uncle, Dhondiram Solanki, alleges his thumb impression was taken on blank papers. I am illiterate and didn\u2019t know what I agreed to. There is no question of me reading newspapers,\u201d says Solanki.<\/p>\n

The same kind of racket is being repeated in Andhra Pradesh. In Medak district, a racketeer tricked Lakshmi Malkiah and sent her daughters to the US eight years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man called Sanjeeva Rao told me he would help me in getting my daughters into school but gave the children away. I came to know of this later. People abused me; they said I sold my kids,\u201d says Lakshmi Malkiah.<\/p>\n

Rao\u2019s racket was busted and Lakshmi trace her daughters. She now meets them once a year for a few hours.<\/p>\n

28 girls in limbo<\/p>\n

Sister Theresa Maria was responsible for over 500 illegal adoptions uncovered in 2001, after which Andhra Pradesh placed a ban on foreign adoptions. Fathima was one of her victims. Unable to pay for her caesarian operation, Theresa kept Fathima\u2019s baby as collateral.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sister asked me to sign on papers which said my daughter will be given for adoption after my death. I didn\u2019t know what I was signing on,\u201d says Fathima.<\/p>\n

Fathima\u2019s daughter, Anusha, lives with her adopted family in Germany. Fathima hopes when Anusha grows older she will come back to meet her, but 28 girls in Theresa’s Tender Loving Care Home are trapped. Sister Theresa won’t allow Indian couples to adopt them and the Andhra government won’t let them to go foreign families.
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Date: 2007-01-01 Source: majebal.org Poor families are duped of their children, who are declared orphans and put up for adoption by families who can pay in thousands \u00a0Renuka, 18, lost her three younger sisters to an adoption racket. An Italian couple took the help of Preet Mandir, an adoption and child welfare agency in Pune,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}