Siblings given for adoption without informing family
Siblings given for adoption without informing family
TNN | Feb 29, 2020, 04.12 AM IST
Siblings given for adoption without informing family
BHOPAL: Three siblings, aged 8, 11 and 15, living in SOS Balgram here, were given for adoption to a US-based couple in late January — even when their father and grandmother are alive.
The kids’ grandmother went to meet them on February 22 only to find that they are already adopted. The Bal Aayog of Madhya Pradesh has taken cognizance of the matter.
The grandmother had taken the children to SOS Balgram in 2015, as CLCP (Child in need of care and protection), through Childline as their mother had died and father was of unsound mental health.
A special adoption agency of the city, linked to SOS, gave the children for adoption earlier this month, without the grandmother’s knowledge. On Friday, the grandmother filed a complaint with Madhya Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
“I was unable to take care of the three children after my daughter-in-law passed away and son started having mental problems. A woman told me that I could go to Childline and put the children in an ashram or hostel where they will be taken care of. I took them to a shelter home with the help of Childline in 2015, and used to visit them every month till last year. The staff there told me not to come to meet the children so often, as it distracted them, so I went to meet them in January — after seven months. But they did not let me meet them. I went again in February but was sent back. I went again on February 22 when I was told that they are in a foriegn country as they have been adopted. I had not given them up for adoption. They were living there because I could not afford to take care of them,” the grandmother told MPCPCR
She had gone to the Child Welfare Committee on Wednesday but the members said they ‘knew nothing about the case’. “The previous CWC, with members — Rekha Shridhar, Seema Agarwal, Mohan Sharma, Satyendra Singh — had dealt with this case and had sent the kids to SOS as asked by the grandmother. As per records, we have the kids categorized as CLCP (child in need of care and protection) who cannot be declared legally free for adoption. We are going through other documents to verify them properly,” said Kripashankar Choubey, member of CWC.
Recalling the day the kids were brought to Childline, director Archana Sahaye said, “It had been made absolutely clear in the paperwork that the children were in need of care and protection, and had not been surrendered by the grandmother. The paperwork to make them legally free and then give them up for adoption was done without the knowledge of Childline and the grandmother.”
“We have taken cognizance of the matter and will write to the collector an commissioner WCD to investigate and see the Social Investigation Report given by the adoption agency and CWC before declaring the kids legally free for adoption and take strict agency against the guilty,” said Brijesh Chouhan, member of MPCPCR.
When TOI contacted Vipin Das — the director of SOS Balgram, about the matter, he said, “You can call CWC and SAA in question as all paperwork is done by them.”
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