Mysuru: In a fresh development Mysuru-based NGO Odanadi has alleged that the Sri Jagadguru Murugharajendra (SJM) Mutt authorities offered Rs 3 crore to it to hush up the two POCSO cases filed against erstwhile pontiff Shivamurthy Sharana.

The allegation gained significance as the four minor victims who filed POCSO case against seer in Mysuru after authorities and police in Chitradurga refused to book case against seer. The Odanadi gave shelter to victims and assisted to file first FIR against seer under POCSO in Nazarbad police station on August 27 .

The Odanadi also provided assistance to file second FIR against Shivamurthy Sharana on October 13 at Nazarbad police. Later both cases were transferred to Chitradurga rural police station. The police submitted 694-page chargesheet against the prime accused Shivamurthy Sharana , hostel warden Rashmi and mutt manager Paramashivaiah in first FIR .The investigation in to second POCSO case is underway. The NGO Odanadi which has been striving for welfare of victims and child trafficking was also booked by Chitradurga police 15 days back for hatching conspiracy against SJM mutt which was refuted by Odanadi directors. The Odanadi director K V Stanley told this reporter that it is nothing but a desperate effort by mutt to hush up the case. He said the mutt authorities first attempted to hush up cases by luring victims family members.

The role of CWC and District child protection unit (DCPU) is also suspicious as both did not unearth illegal adoption centre run by mutt since decades. He said the State Child Rights Commission ordered for an enquiry against DCPU and CWC for trying to shield mutt.

In a fresh development the mutt through a politician offered Rs 3 crore to Odanadi to give up the cases. He said Odanadi supported thousands of victims since four decades and would never give up the agitation against offenders.

A combined reading of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2015 as amended by the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 (JJ Act), Juvenile Justice Model Rules 2016 as amended by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Amendment Rules 2022 (JJ Model Rules) and Adoption Regulations 2022 (AR 2022) reveals critical lacunae making the relevant provisions hard to understand and difficult to implement.

Adoptable children hereby refer to orphan, abandoned and surrendered children who have been declared legally free for adoption (LFA) by the Child Welfare Committee as per section 38 of the JJ Act. Orphan, abandoned and surrendered (OAS) children are defined in Sections 2(42), 2(1) and 2(60) of the JJ Act, respectively.

It has been sufficiently established and well recognized in the law that adoption should be the priority for rehabilitation of adoptable children, especially those below 6 years of age. The relevant provisions under Section 44(9) of the JJ Act, Rule 23(3) and Rule 44(1)(i) of the JJ Model Rules, make it clear that placing a child in adoption is the preferred recourse for OAS children, and if that is not possible, foster care is the next suitable alternative for them.

This article highlights inconsistencies and gaps in the foster care related provisions from the perspective of adoptable children, with regards to the following:

A) Absence of a provision for foster care for adoptable children with special needs who do not get a family through adoption

MELISSE (26) WAS ADOPTED FROM CHINA: 'I DIDN'T KNOW THAT ADOPTION WAS A TRAUMA'

BACKGROUND

LINDA.GIRLS

REALLIFE

28.11.2022 | 3:25 PM | KIM HARTRING

November 28, 2022 - The 'Out-of-home placement' guideline has been revised and sent for authorization to professional associations BPSW, NIP and NVO. After all professional associations have authorized the guideline, we will publish the new guideline on this website. This is expected to be mid-January 2023.

Click here if you would like to receive a notification as soon as the revised guideline is online.

Important changes in the revised guideline

• The revised guideline places a greater emphasis on relocation compared to the current guideline. That is why the name of the guideline has been changed to: Out-of-home placement and return guideline.
• The guideline has a clear focus on 'growing up as at home as possible', including in the case of (temporary) out-of-home placement. This is preferably placed in a (network) foster family or a family home. And where parents remain involved in their child's life as much as possible.
• The guideline has a broader approach with regard to preventing out-of-home placement. And this has been expanded with more interventions to prevent out-of-home placement
• Instead of a proposed acceptable period within which decision-making on out-of-home placement or return should take place, the revised guideline offers a new assessment framework for decision-making on out-of-home placement and return.
• The revised guideline pays much more attention to joint decision-making with parent and child in all steps of decision-making. The basic principle is that decisions about out-of-home placement and return are made together with parents and child as much as possible.
• The directive has a major impact on the family and the uncertainty of the outcome of the decision is great.
• In addition, the guideline pays more attention to the use of the informal network and social support in supporting parents and child.

Review in collaboration with the field

Only recently, a proposal for paid paternity leave was approved in the referendum of 27 September 2020 and the resulting law came into force on 1 January 2021. Since then, fathers can take two weeks of paid paternity leave within six months of the birth of their child.

The growing need for care and nursing, the new types of family structures as well as the steadily increasing employment rate among women have also led to a reform in the area of balancing gainful employment and child or family care. Since 1 January 2021 and 1 July 2021, the law has provided an entitlement to paid care leave of up to three days for the necessary care of relatives and up to 14 weeks for the care of children with serious health problems.

The extension of leave for mothers and fathers and the resulting improvement in the compatibility of family and gainful employment have so far not extended to the area of adoption. Although the issue of an adoption allowance had already been the subject of several parliamentary debates, parents who adopted a child had until now had no legal entitlement to leave when the child joined the family.

This will change from 1 January 2023 as both adoptive mothers and fathers will have a statutory right to two weeks’ paid adoption leave.

Gainfully employed persons who adopt a child less than four years old are entitled to the adoption allowance. Adoption leave is a necessary supplement to adoption allowance. In other words, only those who meet the requirements for an adoption allowance are also entitled to adoption leave.

In total, 89 complaints have been made to gardaí to date.

The third episode of Redacted Lives, a new podcast series about mother and baby homes, was released by The Journal this week. The six-part documentary series explores the experiences of people who passed through the system.

Children born into these institutions were usually adopted or sent to industrial schools – often without their mother’s consent.

Many women have tried to find their children over the years, but to no avail. Adopted people have also struggled to find their parents, or information about their early life.

Redacted Lives gives these people the chance to tell the real story of mother and baby homes, and explores how the State continues to deny survivors access to information, proper redress and ownership of their true identities.

HYDERABAD: For Oruganti Hari Prasad and Vempati Baswanti, a childless couple from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh who are into their 50s, the wait was worth as they had to go through a lengthy process to legally adopt a child.After staying here for over a week, during which they interacted with the girl who they wanted to adopt through a Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) and had a meeting with a medical officer, regional joint director, Shishu Vihar in-charge officer and others officials, they went home with 17-year-old Ruchika in October, 2021.

Like Hari Prasad and Vempati Baswanti, many childless couples were able to legally adopt children thanks to the efforts of Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) department, which is currently celebrating November, the International Adoption Awareness Month by organising programmes and interactive sessions to promote legal adoption process.

As per the data provided by WDCW department, a total of 1,430 kids were adopted since June 2014. Between April and October this year, a total of 127 children were adopted from Telangana, out of which 111 were in-country adoptions and 16 inter-country adoptions.

On Friday, the WDCW Department conducted a programme -- dance-drama to promote legal adoption as well as an interactive session with aspiring parents and the children. According to experts, a medically fit couple or individual below the age of 55 years who are financially stable and have no criminal records can adopt a child legally through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a statutory body of the central ministry of WDCW. Even though the process is little lengthy and requires the parents to wait

for a period of three to four years, it is important to adopt the children the right way, they said.

Laura Codru?a Kovesi got married in secret, shortly after becoming the European Chief Prosecutor. She has kept the identity of the partner under wraps.

Laura Codru?a Kovesi does not usually talk about her private life, although there have been quite a lot of speculations over time. It is known about the current head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office that she was married to Eduard Kovesi from Sibiu, between 2002 and 2007, after which she devoted herself to her career, becoming chief prosecutor at the National Anti-Corruption Directorate.

Laura Codru?a Kovesi: "I got married"

In this context, Kovesi surprised everyone in October 2022 when he revealed that he got married .

"I got married a few years ago. Immediately after I took office in Luxembourg. The friend I had in Romania is Romanian. He worked privately. It was a low-key relationship. He is an extraordinary man.

When did child abuse, long considered a private matter, became a public concern? The 1874 case of ten-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson of New York City is usually considered the first great challenge to a violent tradition.

“Despite the fact that for hundreds of years history records instances of cruelty to children by parents and other caretakers, few cases of child abuse were acted on in the courts before the nineteenth century,” explains scholar Lela B. Costin.

As Costin writes, many legends have arisen about Mary Ellen, including most prominently that, on the basis her being an “animal,” the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) stepped in to save her from her vicious foster parents.

Bergh and SPCA counsel Elbridge T. Gerry decided the child was entitled to protection under the laws against animal cruelty.

When no public or private entity would step in to help Mary Ellen, Etta Angell Wheeler (“variously termed a mission worker, a tenement visitor, and a social worker”) appealed to Henry Bergh of the SPCA. The story goes that she suggested that Mary Ellen should surely be thought of as “a little animal,” too. Bergh supposedly affirmed that “[t]he child is an animal. If there is no justice for it as a human being, it shall have least have the right of the cur” to not be abused. In this legend, Bergh and SPCA counsel Elbridge T. Gerry decided the child was entitled to protection under the laws against animal cruelty.

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: JUST-C2-CHARTE@ec.europa.eu

Date: Fri 25. Nov 2022 at 22:19

Subject: Reply to Citizen's Letter - Ares(2022)8175473

To: info@againstchildtrafficking.org