New Delhi: With messages on social media floating of people having adopted and willing to adopt children who have lost parents to Covid-19, chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Anurag Kundu has asked Delhi Police to intervene in these matters and increase their vigilance on social media.

This red flag from Kundu follows the fear that some may use this opportunity for trafficking or selling children.

In a letter to Delhi Police commissioner SN Srivastava, Kundu said, “I want to bring to your attention my concern about social media being currently filled with adoption information of acceptance and offer of children who have turned orphan during the pandemic. The child rights commission has come across many instances on social media where people who have information about orphans are encouraging others to adopt them.”

“In some cases the post update informs the children have been adopted. I am sure some of these are out of ignorance of the law governing adoption, however, they may also be cases of trafficking and sale/purchase of the children. These need to probed to get to the depth of the matter,” the letter added.

Kundu said he will also be writing to the DCP, cyber crime, with specific instances requesting inquiry.

‘Social media posts on such children could be possible cases of trafficking’

Social media posts appealing for adoption of children orphaned during COVID-19 are illegal, warn experts. They appeal that citizens must dial helpline 1098 to pass on information about children in need of care and protection.

With deaths due to the COVID-19 on the rise, Twitter and Whatsapp have been flooded with citizens sharing details of children who have lost either both their parents or the only living parent to the disease and pleading for them to be adopted. On Monday, Chairperson Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Anurag Kundu, wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava flagging such posts as possible cases of trafficking and requesting for a probe in each of these instances.

Activists warn that such posts are illegal under Section 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, which prohibit offering or receiving children outside the processes laid down under the Act as well as their sale and purchase. Such acts are punishable with three to five years in jail or ?1 lakh in fine.

“There is a process as per the JJ Act which needs to be followed with children who have been orphaned. If someone has information about a child in need of care, then they must contact one of the four agencies: Childline 1098, or the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC), District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) or the helpline of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights,” says Vaidehi Subramani, Chairperson of CWC, South Delhi District.

Smriti Irani said anyone who has information about a child whose parents have died of Covid-19 and has no one take care, should inform police and the district child welfare committee.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday urged people to inform police about children who have lost both parents to Covid-19 and have no one to take care of them.

Appealing to the people, the minister said this is a legal responsibility and people should help the government in preventing illegal adoption.

I have chosen to not disclose the identities of my sources, in order to protect them from possible retaliation. All of the people that I spoke to are children’s rights advocates working in the region. Apart from working as a freelance writer, I also work as a children’s rights advocate in Uganda. In this piece, I’m not sharing any information that hasn’t already been put out there publicly by Alicia Marie Harding herself.

The current situation

After writing about the Melanie Brechlin case a few weeks ago, I was recently informed about another possible adoption case in Zambia, by a children’s rights advocate in my circles. Again, the ‘adoption journey’ in question is being chronicled on a public Instagram profile — as is often the case.

On September 10 2020, Alicia Marie Harding published an Instagram post in which she announced that she and her family would be fostering a pair of newborn twins in Zambia. In an accompanying blog post that she wrote (which can be found here, on her blog girlgoestoafrica.com), Harding — who works as a missionary nurse — told her followers about how she was working at the clinic one day, when she received a call from a medical officer of a nearby district. The medical officer described an emergency situation in which a mother had just given birth to twins. The mother had passed away after giving birth, leaving behind a total of 8 children. There was no capacity for the family to also look after two vulnerable newborns, who had been welcomed into the world at just 36 weeks old.

Harding wrote about how the twins would live with them for the foreseeable future, but immediately stressed that they would want to eventually adopt the children — if the twins’ family would comply.

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

From: Arun Dohle

Date: Tue, 4 May 2021 at 13:46

Subject: Re: Reminder: FW: Unicef Netherlands position in Intercountry Adoption ?

To: Kerry Neal

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Earlier this week, DCPCR appealed to people on social media to call on their helpline number and report cases where children need essential supplies, have lost their parent(s), or are struggling to support themselves due to the illness.

Flooded by requests for adopting children who lost their parents to Covid-19, both online and offline, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has urged people not to fall for misinformation floating on social media, and advised interested families to follow the due legal process to initiate the adoption process.

Several children have lost their parents to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic -- fourth wave, as per the Delhi government -- in the national capital. Earlier this week, DCPCR appealed to people on social media to call on their helpline number and report cases where children need essential supplies, have lost their parent(s), or are struggling to support themselves due to the illness. Following this, the child rights body said requests for adopting children orphaned amid the pandemic have also started pouring in.

Commission chairperson Anurag Kundu tweeted on Saturday evening: “Do not believe anyone who says he/she can give you the child for adoption. They are either lying or misleading or simply involved in illegal practices. Do reach out to your lawyer friends for advice.”

Kundu said he himself has received around 10 such requests in the last few days. “Besides, I see a lot of posts floating around about child adoption. People need to understand that they have to follow a legal process. Any adoption without it is illegal,” he said.

The adoptive parents of a girl child have moved the Supreme Court challenging a Kerala High Court judgment of April 9, which had set aside the adoption of the child on the ground that a deed of surrender had not been executed by both the biological parents.

A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheswhari stayed the judgment of the Kerala High Court after the petitioners pointed out that the High Court had passed its verdict without hearing them.

“Considering the facts and circumstances of this case, in the meanwhile, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed,” the Court ordered.

Advocates Liz Mathew, Manisha Singh and Sonali Jain appeared for the petitioners (adoptive parents).

Background

As 17 year olds, Ernst and Tonny Fickweiler (68) gave their baby up for adoption after an unplanned pregnancy. They would never see him again. Or so they thought. "There is a hole somewhere and every time you think about it it makes it very emotional, it is just tangible."

It should be a few A4 pages, briefly describing the family history of the prodigal son. To catch up with him, to make up for the lost years. But it turned into a project that took four years and resulted in a book that turned out to be much more than a family chronicle.

Bomb

Anyone who reads their book feels how the bomb hit the lives of two 17-year-olds. It was a beautiful evening in September 1970. And as so often there was reason for a party, this time with a mutual friend in the attic in their Waddinxveen, where they grew up. Ernst writes about it as a happy memory. And then the song Albatros from Fleetwood Mac was played. ... When I brought Tonny home that evening, we were both happy and deeply in love with each other. Only from that moment on everything would be different, everything would be different. The world upside down. Our young life would change forever.

What followed was a succession of impressive events. As soon as her pregnant belly became visible, Tonny left for a foster home, so that she would not get the scandals in the village. In all loneliness and homesickness she carried her pregnancy there, in order to give birth to her son in the presence of strangers in a clinic. She would never see him, only hear him cry from behind a held up towel: a sound she wouldn't forget for the rest of her life.

The widow and daughter of the Maltese man who died from Covid-19 in India arrived safely in Malta on Sunday evening.

Ivan Barbara, 47, was cremated on the couple’s 19th wedding anniversary after falling ill while in India to adopt their daughter.

He died on Friday after developing complications minutes before he was set to board the air ambulance sent to fly him back to Malta. Reportedly, Barbara’s ashes have been brought to Malta.

Two other Maltese couples who travelled to India to adopt were also flown in safely by Maltese authorities.

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