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Parents seeking stolen
children after
huge Baby-Selling Racket is busted in India
by Michelle Konieczny
The parents of some of the 188 children rescued by Indian officials during the last few weeks found out the other day they must wait for DNA testing results before being allowed to take their children back home. The children, rescued during an investigation into an apparent baby-selling ring in the Andrha Prakesh province of India, remain in the custody of the state. 150 of the children are being held at the child welfare departments' Sishu Vihar Block in Vengalraonagar and 32 were admitted to hospitals, mostly for under- and malnoutrition.
The Indian Government has issued appeals to all biological parents of the rescued children asking them to come forward within 30 days or the department would make way for in-country adoption for them.
Investigators from various Police, Social Services, and Detective Departments in India have now raided 8 unlicensed Orphanages and Adoption Homes in response to allegations of baby-selling. Some arrests have been made and a man-hunt is still on for directors of two of the raided homes.
Anita Sen, proprietor of the "Precious Moments" adoption center and wife of a prominent police official is rumored to have gone underground. A Nationwide alert was issued for airports just the other day in case she decided to flee the country. Anita faces charges of illegal procurement, confinement, and sale of infants in children. A complaint was filed it Kukatpally police station after 6 children were rescued from her "unrecognized" (unlicensed?) adoption home.
Officials are also still on the lookout for Savithriamm, director of the John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home, aliases for this woman also include the names; Savithiri Devi and Savithri Samson. Police have taken into custody her foster son. 2 cases have been booked against Savithriamm by Kanartka's Corps of Detectives (CoD) alleging child trafficking and procurement of children from tribal-dominated villages in Kanartaka. Tandur Police and the CID have also booked her on similar charges.
The CID also arrested N Sanjeeva Rao, executive director for the Action for Social Development organization in Hyderabad on April 22nd. His active associate, A Pandu a 26 year old autodriver was arrested an accused of helping Rao in the illegal sale of infants under the guise of adoption for pecundiary gain. Pandu was linked to the procurement of two infants from a tribal village.
In a neighboring district of Orissa another child adoption racket has also been unearthed. State officials raided an orphanage Vikash Parishad Sishu Ashram (VPSA) which was run by Sukhdev Swain in Cuttack, and rescued 7 children out of a recorded 11 that were supposed to be at the home according to records kept by the agency. An official involved in the raid and speaking on condition of anonymity to a reporter from the India Times said that the orphanage claimed that 2 of the missing children had died of sun stroke the week before and that the other two were given back to their parents. However, there was no proof of the deaths and officials state giving back a child to his biological parents after 60 days in an orphanage is illegal under Indian adoption law.
In the midst of the investigations things are heating up politically in India. Andhra Pradesh's Congress Committee president Satyanarayana Rao admitted a writ petition to the High Court related to the sale of infants. The writ was to seek direction to the government to firmly punish those involved with the baby-selling racket. A party spokesperson, K Rosaiah speaking to the writ unleashed a barrage of charges against the state government and the Chief Minister, saying, "Naidu is indulging in tough talk as he had done when a similar racket was busted in 1998. He had then said a committee would be set up to put an end to such activities but nothing was done. Had effective steps been taken the situation would not have arisen."
Rosaiah also claimed that as many as 156 children were "sold" for adoption to foreigners in the year 2000, while in 1999 the figure was around 112. Australis appears to be one of the countries these babies were "sold" into as Child Advocates there claim.
Some India and Australian-based women's and children's campaigners were quoted in the Sydney Herald as saying that Australians were buying Indian babies, especially girls. One case in particular was cited where a Melbournian couple had paid \$30,000 (Australian) to the agency where the child's biological mother ended up receiving just \$25 (Australian) of that sum.
Shobna Phanshikar, who runs the Gramya Resource Center for Women near Hyderabad alleged that the five adoption agencies in Hyderabad are involved in the racket, and that two of those agencies hold government licenses.
In a stunning twist one agency, which does hold a governmental license for inter-country adoption has decided to disengage itself from the adoption community. The Indian Council of Social Welfare (ICSW) has surrendered their right to adoption work. The agency run by Ms. Roda Mistry said in a letter sent to the state that she 'did not like the current trend of affairs and would be pulling out'. This is in spite of being issued a license extending for 3 more years just recently.
SUMMARY:
AGENCIES
"BUSTED"
1. John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home (one center in Tandur,
another in nearby city) - run by Savithramm; AKA Savithri Devi
and Savithri Samson
2. Precious Moments - Kukatpally - run by Anita Sen. wife of an
IPS officer
3. Bal Rakshana Smithi - Habshiguda - run by Vijaya Lalitha
4. Action for Social Development - Hyderabad - run by N Sanjeeva
Rao
5. Radhakishan Home - Toli Chowki (Near Medhipatnam)
6. Vikash Parishad Sishu Ashram (VPSA) - Kadampada,Cuttack - run
by Sukhdev Swain
note: several homes that were raided were indeed residential
homes. One such home was of a Bethany House worker who had
"stashed" the children there presumably around the time
of the raids.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
TAAP urges all adoptive parents of Indian Children here in the US to contact and assist investigators if they are aware of any irregularities in their cases, especially if the agency they worked with was not in posession of a license issued by CARA - the Indian Adoption Licensing Body.
Also, we remind readers of the case of the adoptee who recently faced deportation due to her illegal adoption status after writing a bad check. Not addressing this possible issue now may result in serious threats to your child's liberty in the future.
Information for this article was taken over the past few weeks from stories available at: http://www.theindiatimes.com
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