State adoptions under the scanner after restorations gone wrong found rising

Govt bodies find that guardians misuse the 60-day grace period for reclaiming children from adoption agencies, and put many of the kids up for independent and illegal adoption later. In the last 6 months,

30 such restoration cases were noted.

With the revelation of a rise in cases of parents or guardians reclaiming children from registered adoption agencies and often selling them off independently — and illegally — the bodies monitoring the welfare of these kids are now in a ferment, scrutinising existing processes to make changes.

Over the last five or six months, several eye-opening cases of children being put up for adoption illegally for monetary gains by their own parents or guardians have come to the attention of the women and child development (WCD) officials in the state.

Shockingly, the pattern is that these kids were taken home from official agencies by their mother, father or guardian, who were taking advantage of the 60-day ‘restoration’ period as per the law. Relevant authorities wish to close up any gaps that may lead to child trafficking, in view of the recent developments.

In some of these cases, police cases were registered and action taken — the rest of the restoration cases in Maharashtra over the last year are now frantically being cross-verified, following WCD orders. Under the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act), specialised adoption agencies (SAAs) run by private agencies or NGOs in most cases must be registered with the government’s Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), for intra- and inter-country adoptions, and the details of each child admitted to the agency have to be provided. The CARINGS portal is run by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), the government’s nodal body for monitoring adoption in the country.

The link between CARA and these many SAAs is the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA), which is part of the state WCD. According to the JJ Act, every orphan, abandoned and surrendered child is put up for adoption on CARA as per the decision of the district-level Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

However, during a grace period, the mother, father or the rightful guardian has the privilege to materialise and take back the child, deemed as ‘restoration’. As per the rules, the time frame for them to reconsider and apply for restoration is 60 days. But thereafter, while these guardians are mandated to report to the CWCs or district women and child welfare officers once in 15 days for a few months, in a majority of cases, they simply

don’t show up for checks after taking the child back. Instead, it is being found in some cases that children are put up for adoption online illegally in return for money — some parents even sign undertakings saying they would be giving their child over.

For instance, it was found that a girl child was taken back by her mother from an agency in Satara in the name of restoration. But later, she was sold by the parent for money under the guise of an adoption. Luckily, in this case, Satara police took action and booked the mother. In a similar incident, CWC took custody at its Hadapsar wing of a child in need of care and protection from Akola, after the baby was illegally put up for sale citing ‘adoption’. In fact, the father was even looking to put up his niece for ‘adoption’ for the right price. In this case, too, action was taken. A third incident that prompted attention also took place in Satara, when a baby born from an extra-marital affair was sold illegally, but discovered by the authorities.

All such cases proved to be major eye-openers for officials, who are now also considering the child trafficking angle and looking to eliminate absolutely any loopholes that may allow it.

SARA head and WCD assistant commissioner Menakshi Biraris admitted, “The state WCD last year received reports for the approval of 30 children being restored to their parents from different agencies across the state. But now, we have put all restoration cases statewide under scrutiny and asked CWCs and district women and child welfare officers to submit reports to us. After we learned about untoward incidents we are working on a safer process and have issued orders for home visits to be conducted for the children taken back by their families. Necessary action will be taken by us.” Children surrendered by a parent or abandoned have to be put up for adoption on CARA. The grace period of 60 days for restoration is the right of the parent. But, if the child is sold or put up for adoption independently, it is illegal — Pravin Ghuge, chairman, MSCPCR. She added, “We have also decided to rectify the whole process of restoration. At the moment, the final approval is given by the WCD’s SARA after the restoration process is completed. Instead, we now want the final approval to come from SARA before the restoration is initiated.”

Confirming the developments, Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) chairman, Pravin Ghuge, said, “Children surrendered by a parent or abandoned have to be put up for adoption on CARA. The grace period of 60 days for restoration is the right of the parent to reconsider his or her decision. However, if the child is sold or put up for adoption independently, it is illegal and completely wrong. Action has to be taken in such incidents. Even if it is the mother of the child, she has no right to personally sell or put the baby up for adoption. I will be looking into this issue and taking the necessary action.”

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