It has been three months since the lid was blown off the fake inter-country adoption racket after nine missing children were traced to different countries and the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recommended immediate action, but the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is yet to make a move.
The nine children found missing from their homes over a period of one year were traced to America, Italy, Spain and Denmark, which figure in the list of top five nations adopting from India for the past three years.
The NCPCR has now once again written to CARA reminding the country’s adoption regulator about the nine children. “One missing case was from Tamil Nadu and who was found in Netherlands. Another case which was brought to us was also of a male child from Tamil Nadu who was located in USA. About six months back, we received a complaint from Hyderabad. The father had all documents substantiating his fear that his son was in USA,” said an NCPCR member.
“A lot of these cases came to our attention earlier this year during an international meet for Mutual Cooperation on Inter-Country Adoption between India and other countries.
While we sympathise with the parents, we are more worried about these children, who have been sent to foreign lands by these illegal agents, who have been working without any fear of law only for money," said the member.
CARA officials pointed out that as per the procedures followed by them, they traced children in such cases only for the first two years of adoptions. "However, we will look into the matter," they said.
According to the latest data released by CARA, a total of 74 children have been adopted by foreign nations in the last three months alone.
Of them, the highest number of children have been taken by the USA (21), followed by Italy (15), United Kingdom (6), France (5), and four each by UAE, Belgium and Spain.
Between April 2012 and March 2013, there were 308 international adoptions, where USA adopted 111, which was the highest that year, followed by Italy (59) and Spain (48). In 2011-12, there were a total of 629 foreign adoptions.
NCPCR has been receiving complaints from NGOs, child rights activists and desperate parents looking for their missing children. In its letter to CARA, it stated that this kind of illegal inter-country adoptions were in complete violation of Article 4 of the Hague Convention according to which "an adoption can take place only if the competent authorities of the state of origin have established that the child is adoptable, consider inter-country adoption to be in child's best interests after considering all possibilities of in-country adoption" apart from obtaining all necessary consent including that of the biological parents, if alive.
"Especially in cases, where children have gone missing and have been traced in foreign lands, it is extremely imperative to study the channels from where these kids were kidnapped and sent to foreign shores," said an official from Women and Child Development Ministry. "Study of individual cases and their journey will help in identifying the agencies party to the crime and may also help nab culprits," said the official.