http://whfc.org/wp-content/themes/whfc/images/pdfs/WHFC_Report_to_Donors.pdf

Closing a children's home is a big step, but it will ultimately benefit more families and children, says Bep van Sloten. 'Children lose contact with their community precisely because of a recording.'

Bep van Sloten was involved in closing an orphanage in Namibia and placing the orphans in foster families. The painting and the cushions on the sofa come from Namibia, the books are about Africa. (image Dirk Hol)

Amersfoort

In her work, Bep van Sloten (68) told governments and NGOs on a daily basis that children's homes are not a good place to grow up. As an international consultant in the field of alternative youth care, she advised them on the transition to other ways of caring for children. 'Saying that it has to be done is one thing, but actually doing it is another story', says Van Sloten. 'In Namibia I had to do it myself.'

Article continues below the ad

Women and Family Welfare Minister Veena George said the state will take Anupama S Chandran’s demand for her child to the family court.

THE CPI(M)-led goverment in Kerala got into damage control mode Saturday as the alleged forcible separation of a boy from his mother, an SFI leader, snowballed into a controversy even as the aggrieved woman sat on protest in front of the secretariat.

Women and Family Welfare Minister Veena George said the state will take Anupama S Chandran’s demand for her child to the family court. She said before adoption formalities are completed, the court will be informed. It will also be told about the government investigation into the baby’s adoption.

The state women’s commission has also offered legal assistance to Chandran, 23, who protested before the state secretariat Saturday, demanding her son be returned. She ended her stir after the government promised to look into her demand.

Chandran has alleged that her parents, local CPI(M) leaders, forcibly took away her son last October, three days after her delivery. They allegedly considered the child illegitimate as Chandran’s partner Ajith Kumar, a DYFI leader, was then married to Nasiya, another party worker.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : On a day when Anupama S Chandran, the woman who is on the search of her baby allegedly given in adoption to another couple by the child welfare council, staged a fast in front of the Secretariat seeking justice, the state government approached the Family Court here with a request to freeze the adoption proceedings of the baby which is believed to be Anupama’s. She ended her protest after government’s assurance.

Woman and Child Welfare Minister Veena George said the state adoption agency will file the petition in the court, detailing all recent developments. The adoption proceedings are in the final stage and the court was told that the state government has launched an inquiry into the entire episode.

On Saturday, Veena rang up Anupama and conveyed the decision. Maintaining that the mother’s request is right and that the baby should live with the mother, Veena said the government is intervening now to prevent any further legal complications.

The minister has already ordered a probe by the secretary of the woman and child development into the circumstances that led to the alleged ‘forced separation’ of the infant from the mother. She has also sought a report on the actions initiated by the Child Welfare Committee after the baby had been received.

The preliminary report is expected in a day and the final report will be available in a few days, she said. The minister added she would check whether there were any lapses from the side of the department.

A couple have adopted three brothers after their journey to become parents was put on hold due to a devastating diagnosis.

Kate and Adrian, who have asked only to be referred to by their first names, had already adopted two boys aged three and ten months old when they received a call to say their baby brother was also on his way.

It was at the start of the first coronavirus lockdown back in April 2020 when they received the call from the social worker, who asked "are you sitting down?"

The couple, from Liverpool, said they couldn't face the thought of the baby growing up without his brothers, so they welcomed him into their home on September 30 last year.

To adopt the boys, they went through a process called, Foster for adopt, where approved adopters are temporarily approved as foster carers so a baby can move into the adopters’ home.

Legal vagueness and cases of stolen children are all the rage. The idea of ??hanging them completely is even mentioned.

In 2016 and 2017, the ACF, the Belgian international adoption service, recognized some two hundred supervised cases of adoptions decided abroad. Since then, this number has continued to decrease: 75 in 2018, 58 in 2019 and 49 in 2020.

Why ? "The first factor is the increase in the standard of living in the countries of origin of the children, these favor since internal adoption ", explains Christine-Laura Kouassi, spokesperson for the FPS Justice. " There is also the closure of certain channels due to legal uncertainty or the application of the Hague Convention which requires the country to review their organization before intercountry adoption becomes possible again."

"

In 2016 and 2017, the Federal Central Authority for adoption in our country recognized about 200 files of framed adoptions from abroad. Since then, that number has only fallen: 75 in 2018, 58 in 2019 and 49 in 2020. That is what La Dernière Heure reports in its Sunday edition.

According to the FPS Justice, the fact that the standard of living of children in the countries of origin has improved, which benefits internal adoptions. Certain channels have also been closed due to legal uncertainty, and the Hague Convention has forced some countries to review their organization before international adoption becomes possible again.

Thailand

Of the so-called framed files, which are supervised by recognized Belgian adoption services or the central authorities of the Communities, Thailand (12 adoptions in 2020, against 27 in 2016) was the main country of origin of the children. South Africa, Colombia, Burkina Faso and Togo are also well represented in the statistics.

Unframed international adoptions recognized by the Central Authority also declined in number. In 2016 there were still 34, in 2020 only 20. In this category there are more Western countries, such as France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Thiruvananthapuram: Six people, including the parents and sister of

Anupama S Chandran, have moved anticipatory bail applications even

as the family court at Vanchiyoor would deliver its final judgment on the

adoption process of her child.

Anupama's parents PS Jayachandran and Smitha James along with her

Former SFI leader Anupama S Chandran with her husband Ajith protesting in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, seeking their child back as she alleged that the newborn was taken away from her illegally. Photo: Manoj Chemancheri

Anupama S Chandran was a former worker of the Students' Federation of India, the students arm of the ruling CPM. Yet, she has been forced to hit the streets in protest to get back her child, allegedly taken away from her by her parents three days after his birth and given up for adoption.

"My father says the child was abandoned considering my – his daughter's – future, since I am an unwed mother. His argument is that it was done for my future. My argument is also the same: ain't I fighting for my son," Anupama, who staged a protest in front of the Secretariat with her partner Ajith Kumar asked.

You were a worker of the ruling party's students and youth wings. Still you have to hit the streets against the government machinery?

My father P S Jayachandran is a local leader and a local committee member of the party. The party gave him priority due to his political influence, resulting in me losing the child. I knocked at several doors, but none opened. When I had lost trust in the party, I had no alternative other than hitting the streets.

CPI(M) expresses solidarity with the mother

The State Government on Saturday appeared to scramble to contain the social and political fallout of the so-called ‘forced’ adoption case. It has sought legal opinion to move the court to cancel the child’s adoption and return the infant to its biological mother.

The police would investigate the questionable adoption process and the alleged falsification of the infant’s birth certificate to erase its true identity. They have already brought the child’s grandfather, a CPI(M) leader, under the ambit of its probe.

The compelling account of a young and unmarried mother’s futile search for her child “forcibly taken away from her three days after birth and given up for adoption’ via the Child Welfare Council (CWC) had resonated strongly among the public.

The controversy arguably cast the government in poor light after the woman, an SFI activist and daughter of a party leader, revealed how she and the child’s father, now married to her, was allegedly pushed from pillar to post by “CPI(M) apparatchiks and the police” in the two-year-old distressing quest for their ‘disappeared’ child.