The Karnal police have arrested a Meerut-based doctor couple for their alleged involvement in the illegal adoption of the son of a migrant woman labourer.

Accused Dr DP Shrivastav and his gynaecologist wife Dr Sashibala were allegedly evading arrest since they were booked by the police on June 15 under Sections 363, 368, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 after an investigation by the women protection officer-cum-child marriage prohibition officer Rajni Gupta.

Police had already arrested a Meerut-based couple who had adopted the boy illegally in September last year. Police had recovered the child from their Chandigarh-based relatives.

As per complaint filed by the victim’s mother Jyoti at Karnal’s Kunjpura police station on February 2, last year, on September 18 the Meerut-based doctor couple had taken her four-day-old son on pretext of providing treatment.

In her complaint Jyoti had alleged that a few months before birth of the child, she had come in contact with the doctor couple. Four days after birth of the baby at Karnal’s KCGMCH, Dr Shrivastav told her that the baby is facing respiratory problems and they will provide him better treatment at their hospital in Meerut, free of cost.

The Karnal police have arrested a doctor couple of Meerut who were allegedly evading arrest in connection with their alleged involvement in the illegal adoption of a child of a migrant woman labourer.

A case under Sections 363, 368, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 80

and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 was filed against Dr DP Shrivastav and his wife, Dr Sashibala, a gynaecologist, on June 15.

Now, they have been arrested by the police and sent to judicial custody.

In February, Jyoti, the mother of the child and a resident of Kunjpura, had alleged that the doctor couple had taken her four-day-old son in their care on pretext of treatment on September 18, 2020.

When the Clinton administration passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) in 1997, it intended to drastically reduce the number of children stuck for long periods of time in foster care. One of the safeguards it put in place was a timeline: If a child was in the foster care system for 15 of 22 consecutive months, states would be required to file for termination of parental rights — with an exception made if the child welfare agency provides a "compelling reason" as to why the parent should retain their rights, though a judge would have the power to overturn that appeal.

Courts can terminate parental rights when child welfare agencies present evidence that a parent is not able to care for their child, including because of neglect, abuse, maltreatment and crimes against children. But there are a much broader range of reasons a child ends up in foster care, and critics have long urged lawmakers to re-examine how this timeline places more stress on both parents and children, and in some cases prematurely separates children from their families.

Roughly 1 in 100 children in the U.S. have their parents' rights terminated by age 18, according to an expanded 2019 analysis by Cornell and Rutgers Universities, and Black, brown and Indigenous families, as well as low-income families, disproportionately lose these rights.

"[ASFA] wasn't designed to protect those families. It was designed to be harmful to those families," said Joyce McMillan, a longtime advocate who wants the law repealed. "Look at those kids whose [parents'] rights are terminated. The system doesn't fight for children. The system does not parent," she added, referring to the higher likelihood of negative life outcomes for foster children.

A new House bill introduced in November aims to build in better protections for different marginalized groups in the system, as well as give more time for parents to get their kids back in their care. While some advocates want to remove the timeline altogether, the bill seeks to expand it to at least relieve some of that pressure, they said.

Hundreds of Danish orphans were subjected to examination in a secret experiment supported by the CIA to establish the link between heredity and environment in the development of schizophrenia, a new documentary revealed.

According to "The Search for Myself" released by Radio Denmark, some 311 children from various orphanages were brought to the basement of the City Hospital in the Danish capital of Copenhagen for examinations in the early 1960s.

Through access to documents from those years as well as the old register, a participator of the experiment and current filmmaker Per Wennick was able to find out that the project had links to the CIA. In the first year alone, the project was supported with 3.4 million Danish kroner, corresponding to approximately 4.6 million Danish kroner today. The research project also received $21,000, the equivalent of approximately 1.2 million Danish kroner to date, from the U.S. health agency, the Human Ecology Foundation, which acted on behalf of the CIA, the report said.

The Danish-American research project began in the early 1960s and was focused on the development of schizophrenia. Many of the orphans who were taken to City Hospital were living in nearby areas.

The studies included various association and intelligence tests as well as tests of a physiological and psychological nature. In one of the many tests, the experimental children had to agree or disagree with about 600 different statements. Wennick also discovered that the purpose of the experiments was deliberately hidden from the children.

Gera ter Meulen, Knowledge Bureau ter Meulen, for Foster Care and Adoption

In the current discussion about intercountry adoption, reference is often made to the principle of subsidiarity. But I come across several publications that show that this may be more complicated than you might think. Like this article with an overview of 9 Asian countries by researchers from Japan and Malaysia.

Subsidiarity

One of the important points of view in the Hague Adoption Convention is the principle of subsidiarity: If a child cannot live with his or her parents, then preferably care in their own network, otherwise domestic adoption. Intercountry adoption is only a last resort if there is no good reception in one's own country. But is good reception always possible in your own country?

UN Guidelines for Alternative Care for Children

Latvia: Parliament Passes Amendments That Will End Intercountry Adoptions to the United States

Last Updated: December 29, 2021

The U.S. Embassy in Riga has confirmed that the Latvian Parliament, Saeima, passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Children's Rights, which will ultimately prohibit intercountry adoptions to the United States, effective July 1, 2022.

The new amendments were signed into law on December 29, 2021. Under the new law, intercountry adoptions from Latvia will only be permitted to countries that have ratified both the Hague Adoption Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and have a bilateral agreement with Latvia establishing a legal framework for adoption.? As a result of the changes, intercountry adoptions will not be allowed between Latvia and the United States, effective July 1, 2022.??

The Embassy will prioritize intercountry adoption cases from Latvia to the United States that are currently in process, as it is our understanding that all cases in which prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) have received referrals before June 30, 2022, will be able to continue under current processes. If PAPs have not received a referral by June 30, 2022, they will not be able to pursue an intercountry adoption from Latvia after July 1, 2022. The Office of Children’s Issues and the U.S. Embassy in Riga are working to identify all pending adoptions cases that are in process. If an adoption service provider (ASP) is aware of any pending petitions for an adoption from Latvia, please contact the Office of Children’s Issues at aspadoption@state.gov immediately.

When the devastating Covid second wave hit India in April 2021, there was barely a family in India left untouched by the virus. The wave, one of the worst experienced by any nation, may have abated, but it has left in its wake a saga of trauma and death.

As 2021 comes to a close, while many are consumed by memories of loss and despair, some look forward to a new beginning. News18.com? brings to you stories of those people who have lost and gained a family this year.

The ‘nowhere’ children

According to a Lancet study, around 1.16 lakh children in India may have lost a parent to Covid from March 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021. The breakdown showed an estimated 25,500 children losing their mothers, some 90,751 their fathers, and 12 both parents to the disease. An assessment by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) suggests around 3,620 children lost both their parents, some 26,176 lost one of them and 274 have been abandoned in the country since the pandemic struck.

The plight of the orphaned or ‘nowhere’ children led to an increased chatter around ‘adoption’. While it was thought of as a viable option, many also feared the threat of child trafficking, often in the form of social media messages calling for the direct adoption of children.

The Centre said it didn’t approve Missionaries of Charity’s (MoC) Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) renewal application “for not meeting eligibility conditions” and over certain “adverse inputs” received when it was considering the application.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was one of the first to protest after the news reached Kolkata. “Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union ministry FROZE ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India! Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines. While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised,” she tweeted.

Missionaries of Charity superior-general Sister M Prema

issued a statement on Monday evening confirming that its

FCRA renewal application had been refused. But there “is no

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has enacted one bill related to rules and regulations for licensing Guam adoption agencies while vetoing another.

Bill 206-36, introduced by Sen. Mary Torres, is now Public Law 36-68.

Meanwhile, Bill 179-36, introduced by Sen. Telo Taitague, did not gain the governor's approval.

Both bills shared the same general goal by mandating that adoption agencies or child placement agencies be licensed by the Department of Public Health and Social Services but differed in specific timelines.

Bill 179 would have required adoption agencies to be licensed by June 1, 2022. DPHSS is mandated to promulgate rules and regulations for licensure subject to the Administrative Adjudication Law.

he number of children adopted abroad continues to fall. 244 international adoptions were carried out in 2020 against 421 in 2019, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A decrease of 47%. How to explain the continuation of this collapse which has lasted for more than a decade?

For a decade, the number of foreign adoptions has been steadily declining for French nationals or foreigners residing in France. Several factors explain this decrease.

The ethical question

In 2020, 244 children were adopted abroad by French nationals or foreigners residing in France, according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vietnam is the first country of origin for children followed by Colombia, Thailand, Haiti and the Republic of Congo.

Several factors explain the decline in adoptions for several years. In particular, there is a sharp decrease in adopted children in Russia, the first country of origin for a long time, restrictions have been introduced by Moscow.