The Hindu : Concern over abandonment of babies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Concern over abandonment of babies

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 6. The increasing number of abandoned babies being placed in the `Amma' cradle of the State Council for Child Welfare here is causing concern among the authorities and social workers.

Three months after the cradle was set up by the State Council for Child Welfare on its premises at Thycaud, it has received seven abandoned children, mostly newborns. Five of them were girls.

As per the figures with the Voluntary Coordinating Agency for Adoption (VCA), which records the number of infants reaching licenced adoption centres in the State every month, a total of 334 abandoned children reached the 13 recognised adoption centres in the State during the period between March 2002, and February this year.

This would mean that on the average, 30-odd abandoned infants reach the official adoption agencies every month. The State Child Welfare Council's foundling home here, which had 11 infants in March 2002, now has 23, eight of whom were received in January this year.

According to Mary Ann of the VCA here, only a small fraction of abandoned infants reach the foundling homes, while the majority are abandoned in various hospitals. "The number of abandoned children might be four times the official figure,'' she says.

The Social Welfare authorities and the Central Adoption Resource Agency have issued clear guidelines that hospital authorities inform a recognised adoption agency whenever an infant is abandoned or ready to be given away.

``The suitability of the adoptive family has to be ensured as part of the procedure. When we had to reject one of our applicants because of a negative home-study report, he angrily told us that he could have easily secured a baby from a hospital,'' says Ms. Ann.

According to the social worker, there are any number of `agents' in hospitals here, mostly among attendants, sweepers or helpers, who help young girls and unwed mothers `dispose of' their babies. Some just want to give away the baby, while some others sell them. The doctors and nursing staff often turn a blind eye to the practice, she alleges.

Recognised adoption agencies might reject adoption applications of people who are not legally married or those couples who are above 40 years. Such people also find it easier to get a baby from some hospital.

Poverty was hardly the reason for the increasing number of abandoned babies and most of the babies given away for adoption belong to young unwed girls, often from good families, social workers point out.

The electronic cradle had been set up by the Child Welfare Council on November 14 last year so that those giving away unwanted babies may do it safely, instead of throwing away infants in garbage bins or on railway tracks.

Abandoning children in unsafe locations might lead to some permanent physical handicap, which would make it more difficult to find adoptive parents for them, says the secretary of the Council, Sunil C. Kurien.

The Council had earlier received an infant who had been abandoned in a rubber estate in the suburbs here.

The baby had been covered with ant and insect bites and one of its eyes had suffered permanent damage, he said.

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