J&KARA Constituted After Media Reports Claimed Covid Orphans ‘On Sale’

Srinagar- The Jammu and Kashmir administration has constituted a new adoption resource agency for the erstwhile state to ensure “Care, Welfare & Protection” of the children who were orphaned by the ongoing pandemic, amidst the sensational media reports alleging that “Covid orphans” were being put up for sale by traffickers.

The agency has been set up in order to deal with the process of adopting orphans legally—especially those who lost their parents during Covid—under the guidance of the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) that was constituted in terms of the Juvenile Justice which deals with the 2015’s Care and Protection of Children Act.

Mission Director, ICPS (Integrated Child Protection Scheme) Shabnam Kamili told Kashmir Observer that formation of the new adoption resource agency will fortify the steps taken by the government for protection of orphan children especially those rendered by ongoing pandemic.

“Earlier, J&K wasn’t registered under CARA as there was no State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) for J&K which would have ensured a better protection of orphans in the Valley.” Shabnam said.

Whatever industries have been adversely affected by the pandemic, the fertility industry does not appear to be one of them. Of particular note is the number of children being commissioned through IVF or surrogacy on behalf of single parents who, perhaps in response to uncertainty created by the pandemic, have decided to tackle the task of parenthood on their own. In the rush to approve the personal choices of adults, the media does not seem to consider the situation of the children being commissioned in these arrangements and being intentionally deprived of at least one parent in the process.

Last weekend, for example, the Brisbane Times carried an upbeat story about “How surrogacy allowed a single man to keep hold of his fatherhood dream”. Shaun Resnik, who found himself single at 40 “with a lot of love to give” and still not having met ‘Mr Right’ decided to “embark on fatherhood alone”. Lynn Burmeister, the director of Number 1 Fertility, commented that she believes this case may be a significant landmark.

“It will open people’s eyes to the possibility that you can start a family as a single dad,” she said.

Sarah Jefford, a Melbourne surrogacy lawyer, has noticed an increase in the number of single men seeking legal advice on surrogacy in the last two years. Jefford believes an increasing social acceptance of single parenthood is one of the factors driving the interest of single men investigating surrogacy.

Logistically speaking, it has always been far easier for women to become single parents by intention, but experts have observed a striking upward trend in young single women using donor sperm for fertility treatment as well. Last year, the number rose to 866 in Victoria alone. This represents a 48 per cent increase over a four-year period and now far outstrips the number of same-sex female couples in the state using donor sperm to concieve a child (we have already written at length about our concerns regarding IVF and sperm donation).

Adoptees of color with White

parents struggle to talk with

their families about race

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Growing up, Angela Tucker felt like a racial impostor. She may have looked Black, but she didn’t feel that way.

Well-educated, resourceful family of children, who got involved locally, have got a discriminating fuckfinger and give up.

Stevns : Imagine this thought experiment:

Scenario 1: You walk down Algade in the town hall town of Store Heddinge, with a stroller and minor children, and out of the blue a man comes by and gives you a fuckfinger.

Scenario 2: You have picked up your children in the day care institution, are on their way home, and a man on a bicycle is passing by, while he shouts something about the Ku Klux Klan probably taking care of you.

Fantasy? No, rather a nightmare for a young child who moved to Stevns in September 2020, but who has now put his home and wish house up for sale, and is fleeing racist abuse.

The Calcutta High Court has recently refused to grant custody of a four and a half years

old girl child to her biological father and instead permitted the child to be in the care and

protection of a family friend of her deceased mother.

However, the Court has granted visitation rights to the biological father after observing

that the bond between the child and her natural father ought to be encouraged from a

MUMBAI: A 16-year-old Swedish girl who befriended a 19-year-old on

social media and flew to Mumbai to live with him without her parents'

knowledge, was found in Cheeta Camp, Trombay, by the city crime branch

and handed over to her parents on Friday.

Her father, who took her custody from Dongri's Children Welfare Home,

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should make his stance clear in the adoption row, said social activist Medha Patkar. Speaking to the media after meeting Anupama Chandran and Ajith here on Saturday, she demanded to know the stand of women’s organisations in the issue.“The bad experiences faced by Anupama cannot be justified. She’ll continue her fight on the issue. The women’s organisations in the state should take a firm stance in the matter,’” said Medha.

She met Anupama at the YMCA hall along with social workers and solidarity committee members. Terming the developments unfortunate, Medha said government agencies should function as per the law.

“Government agencies are bound to act as per the law and Constitution. Protecting the rights of the mother and child are also part of the same. However, that didn’t happen in this case,” she said.

Medha Patkar offered her support to Anupama and asked her to go ahead without fear. J Devika explained the controversy and the stand taken by the government and the child welfare committee in the issue. Dr Asad, C R Neelakandan and S Mini also spoke on the occasion.

While this was inspired by the abortion debate engulfing our country again, it’s actually about love; more so than I realized when I started writing.

The Supreme Court’s been hearing arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and the pro-choice crowd is predictably losing it’s collective mind. The same faulty arguments about abortions becoming illegal if Roe falls, misrepresentations of the public’s support for “abortion rights” and falsehoods about pro-life positions only being held by the religious and/or those on the right are being trotted out again. That’s nothing new, but now there’s a new approach that’s incredibly dangerous and needs to be called out before it can gain traction.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is actively pro-life and has two adopted children. This renders the standard (but false) line about how pro-life people only care about babies until birth but not after as moot in her case, so they’ve taken a worse approach to press the attack on her. They’re claiming that people like Barrett (but not people like Buttigieg for some reason) are monsters for advocating for adoption.

The argument: Adoption is hard, painful and leaves people feeling broken with a sense of loss; that it creates a level of human suffering. That is true, but, even though she’s being painted that way, Justice Barrett has never argued that relinquishing custody of a child was simple or painless. She just doesn’t advocate terminating a life as a rational solution to avoiding future pain. Yes, adoption can be traumatic for both mother and child, but that doesn’t justify the narrative that adoption is a problem while abortion is a solution.

It’s actually the natural progression of the “compassionate” pro-abortion argument that an unwanted child is better off being aborted because, if a child isn’t wanted, their life will be hard and not worth living. They use prettier words, but the sentiment is just as harsh, no matter how you say it. Human life is precious, no matter the circumstances of its creation, but this argument creates the false concept that “wantedness” equals worth.

Birth parent Sue cringes in pain any time she hears a baby cry at her work in a Sydney shop. She chose her child’s family in an open adoption at nine months. It didn’t have the secrets of closed adoptions, but it has been the “most traumatic experience of her life”.

As the Christmas trees go up, the heartache spikes for anyone affected by adoption, even those raised in the happiest of adoptive families, say counsellors from the Benevolent Society.

Whether those adopted as children are now 71, like Ken Doyle of Orange, or 22 years old like Claudia from Gymea in Sydney, big family celebrations make them wonder about what could have been.

They also feel guilty for having these thoughts because of how much they love their adoptive families - and don’t want to hurt their feelings.

“Especially coming up to Christmas, big events, birthdays, you do tend to think about it more, wondering what life may have been like if I hadn’t been adopted, but then I feel guilty because I am so fortunate to have such loving family,” said Claudia, who asked for her surname to be withheld.

The Flemish government is to tighten its rules on adoptions from other countries, Wouter Beke (CD&V), minister for the family announced.

The decision comes following a devastating report issued in September alleging widespread human trafficking being carried out under the cover of intercountry adoption. The report was written by a panel of independent experts who had been working on the question since 2019.

“This is something that all parties involved have been saying for many years we have to tackle,” Beke said at the time. And he sketched out the basic principles of the “ambitious reform” needed to intercountry adoption, including multi-parenthood, strengthening partnerships with countries of origin, building bridges between foster care and adoption, and focusing on aftercare and counselling.

Beke also suggested a two-year hiatus for all international adoptions to allow the necessary reforms to be passed. However that proposal was shot down by N-VA, arguing that while reform was needed, a revolution was going too far.

Today, Beke presented his new proposal to parliament: a set of six strict selection criteria designed to weed out bad adoption prospects. Countries that do not apply the criteria will simply be scrapped from the list of acceptable candidates.