COIMBATORE: The city police on Saturday arrested four people, including two women, from Karumbukadai in connection with illegal adoption of two girl children and physical harassment of the youngest child.

The office of district child protection officer rescued the children – aged seven years and four years – and accommodated them in a children’s home.

“After separating from her husband, the biological mother of the children had started living with another man. Four months ago, she gave the children to a friend, who gave them to his two sisters. Within a month or so, the woman who was taking care of the four-year-old child, handed her over to another couple who was looking for adoption,” said an official. “The couple assaulted the child, causing scars on her body. Their neighbours alerted police.”

Podanur police officers and child protection officials visited the house on Friday and rescued the child. “We shifted the kids to a children’s home. We might send the elder girl with the family upon submitting legal adoption documents as she was taken good care of. The youngest child will be subjected to medical examination,” the official said.

.

Coimbatore: A 4-year-old girl was allegedly subjected to torture and assault by a couple that adopted her illegally. The girl was allegedly beaten up and branded by the accused in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district. The case surfaced after the owner of the accused's house saw injury marks and burns on the girl's body.

After seeing the injuries, the owner contacted the cops and the child was rescued. Allegedly, the accused couple illegally adopted the child through a broker.

Girl's elder sister adopted by another family

A probe revealed that the 4-year-old child was adopted illegally by the couple, without any documentation and her elder sister was adopted by another family.

Reportedly, the accused used to assault the girl and brand her. To add to her woes, the heartless accused allegedly poured hot water on the girl. Initially, when some of the neighbours asked the accused about the marks, they claimed that the child had been assaulted by her biological parents, The Hindu reported.

COIMBATORE: The city police on Saturday arrested four people, including two women, from Karumbukadai in connection with illegal adoption of two girl children and physical harassment of the youngest child.

The office of district child protection officer rescued the children – aged seven years and four years – and accommodated them in a children’s home.

“After separating from her husband, the biological mother of the children had started living with another man. Four months ago, she gave the children to a friend, who gave them to his two sisters. Within a month or so, the woman who was taking care of the four-year-old child, handed her over to another couple who was looking for adoption,” said an official. “The couple assaulted the child, causing scars on her body. Their neighbours alerted police.”

Podanur police officers and child protection officials visited the house on Friday and rescued the child. “We shifted the kids to a children’s home. We might send the elder girl with the family upon submitting legal adoption documents as she was taken good care of. The youngest child will be subjected to medical examination,” the official said

d

Women are entitled to maternity leave for adoption, only if the child is below three months of age at that time. This has posed several challenges to women who chose to adopt.

Natasha Sikdar*, an assistant professor at a Kolkata-based engineering college adopted a six-month-old girl child in 2020. She presumed that she would be entitled to maternity leave by her institute but was denied one citing the law.

"Since I had some reproductive issues and had reached the age of 36 years, I decided to go for adoption. The adoption process itself took more than a year and I really needed time off to spend with the baby. But my workplace refused leave since it is legally not mandatory," she added.

The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act states that 26 weeks of paid maternity leave will be available to all working women for pregnancy and child-birth.

However, when it comes to adoption the law states provides only 12 weeks of maternity leave from the time the child is handed over to them. This too is applicable only if the child is below the age of three months. Women adopting children above three months are not legally entitled to any leave.

Barwani: The officials of Childline have succeeded in reuniting a seven-year-old boy with his family on Friday.

The boy got lost in the haat bazaar after his grandfather who got fully intoxicated, forgot to take him back to Sawarda village from where they had come. The lost boy Rakesh was brought to the police station of Rajpur. As soon as the officials of Childline got the news about a lost child being brought to the police station by the Station Incharge of Rajpur police station Triveni Rajput, Project Coordinator of Childline Sanjay Arya and Ravindra Singh Rathod reached Rajpur police station immediately and took the boy in their custody. After enquiring they came to know how the child got lost in the haat bazaar.

Childline officials did successful counseling of the child and after searching his home called his parents and then handed over the child to them.

Childline India Foundation is said to be the best NGO in India working for child labour, child trafficking, child abuse and violence, sexual abuse, child marriage, homeless child, conflict with the law, missing children, runaways, child health, education-related, homeless and addiction. Their efforts in the direction of child welfare are praiseworthy.

.

Ganjam: An Italian couple adopted an orphan girl, Sneha, from the Utkal Balashram in Berhampur city of Ganjam district in Odisha today.

The Italian couple from Genoa were identified as Nicola Gambaro and Elisa Ubegio.

The couple took custody of the child after completing necessary formalities in presence of the district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange and District Welfare Officer.

According to reports, Sneha was rescued from an abandoned place on December 4, 2017.

After the rescue, the information was uploaded on the portal site of Central Adoption Center for adoption through the Special Adoption Agency. Later, she was declared free by the Ganjam Child Welfare Committee.

A NUMBER OF babies who died at Cork County Home were buried in the same coffins as adults, or in coffins containing amputated limbs.

The revelation is included in the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.

The report, which was released earlier this month, confirmed that about 9,000 children died in the 18 ‘homes’ under investigation.

The Commission had difficulty in locating certain burials records, if they existed, of several institutions such as Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

The Commission also struggled to locate burial records for Cork County Home and District Hospital, a former workhouse that was subsequently renamed St Finbarr’s Hospital.

The Covid-19 outbreak has left many newborn babies of illegal surrogate mothers stranded in Thailand because of international travel bans.

"Many babies from commercial surrogate mothers could not be given to the clients due to the Covid-19 travel ban in many countries," Dr Akom Praditsuwan, the Department of Health Service Support (HSSD), said yesterday.

The government on Friday reported 586 new Covid-19 cases, 573 local infections and 13 imported, raising the total to 22,644.

Powered By Trackerdslogo

Dr Akom said the babies were now being cared for by officials from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security as police and other agencies tried to track down all those complicit in the illegal business to charge them with human trafficking.

The Susan Clinic, which belongs to one of the doctors alleged to have engaged in a baby-selling syndicate, has been shut down by the HeFRA, under the MOH, in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service.

The Lartebiorkorshie-based clinic owned by Dr. Hope Quarshie, was closed down for also operating without a license, which residents say has been in operation since December 31, 2020, citinewsroom.com reports.

Dr. Philip Bannor, who is the Registrar of the Health Facilities Regulatory Authority (HeFRA), said the shut down follows several attempts they made to get the facility to be properly registered.

“The last time we came here was within the last six months. We did an operation, and we found out there was no license. We have given them opportunities to comply and that has not happened that is why we have taken this measure against them,” he said to a cross-section of the media.

He further stated that their non-compliance, particularly within the era of a pandemic, poses great dangers.

The investigation into the possible role of the Dutch government in illegal adoptions from abroad between 1967 and 1998 has been completed. The report of the Intercountry Adoption Research Committee will be published on Monday 8 February. On that day, the committee will hand over the investigation to Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker. He commissioned an investigation into possible wrongdoing in international adoptions.

The committee focuses on adoptions from Bangladesh, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Colombia. Illegal adoptions may have been made at that time involving Dutch government officials. Earlier, according to Dekker, it had already been shown that this may have been the case with illegal adoptions from Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. That's why he set up the committee.

The researchers were given access to all information about the adoptions and were allowed to interrogate involved (former) officials. They also sent a questionnaire to a large number of Dutch adopted from abroad. The report was actually due on October 1, 2020, but due to the corona virus, the committee did not meet that deadline. For example, it was not possible to go abroad for research.

Tjibbe Joustra, former chairman of the Dutch Safety Board (OVV), is leading the investigation. Beatrice de Graaf and Bert-Jan Houtzagers are also on the committee. De Graaf is a terrorism expert and professor of the history of international relations at Utrecht University. Houtzagers works at the Council of State.

.