Thursday, May 15, 2003
Thursday, May 15, 2003 |
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Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad
By K. Venkateshwarlu
The question is being raised by child rights activists who took up the cause of these hapless adoptive babies. It has been a year since Karishma left for Ireland and there is no trace of her. Her adoptive parents have not bothered to send the quarterly report on the status of her well-being, as required under the adoption guidelines. Nor the Department of Women and Child Welfare, kept a tab on the baby girl. Karishma was among those rescued from the adoption home run by the Indian Council for Social Welfare (ICSW) a placement agency and kept in the care of `Sishu Vihar' maintained by the Department of Women and Child Welfare. She was "transferred'' to ICSW, by Precious Moments, another placement agency, after she was "relinquished'' by her natural mother. With the controversy over inter-country adoptions raging and finding itself unequal to the task, the department authorised one of the reputed adoption agencies, having a clean record, to take care of rescued babies. Karishma's case was processed by this agency after giving an undertaking that she would be brought back, in the event of a legal problem. ``It is a test case. If the Government is sincere in implementing the High Court order, it would bring Karishma back and give her for in-country adoption,'' P. Jamuna, secretary, Gramya Resource Centre for Women, who had been relentlessly fighting for the rights of the adoptive children rescued from homes run by dubious organisations. The Department has to take responsibility, now that it has started the process of handing over the rescued children to the local adoptive parents. She pointed out that the modus operandi of sending Karishma was akin to the one adopted by agencies in the dock. In-country adoption should have been the first option but it was not followed. In fact the National Commission for Women took it up as a special case. In a significant judgment on May 2, a Division Bench of the High Court Justice B. S. A. Swamy and Justice G. Yethirajulu, set aside the orders of the Family Court permitting inter-country adoptions and described the placement agencies dealing with such adoptions ``as business centres.'' The Bench found fault with the inaction on the part of various Government agencies. It pointed to various irregularities committed by these placement agencies and upheld the decisions of the Family Court where in inter- country adoptions were refused. The Bench added some more guidelines to the existing ones framed by the Supreme Court. Inter-country adoption was declared an exception and only when the Indian couples do not come forward. Processing of both inter-country and in-country adoption of the relinquished, destitute or abandoned children should be done only by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) and Voluntary Adoption Coordination Agency (VACA) at the Central and State levels respectively. CARA and VACA should comprise official and non-official members who have nothing to do with inter-country adoptions. The placement agencies should not have any role, except informing these authorities about a child coming to their care and collecting the expenses incurred on the child at the time of finalisation of adoption of the child. These agencies will have no role to play in the process of inter-country adoptions.
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