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Indian and other Asian children command a price tag of 10,000 to 15,000 dollars for adoption in the United States. Black children fetch $7,000, whereas White children are fancied for prices above $20,000.
"This is what an American activist confided when I asked about 'rates' there. He was among some foreign participants at a workshop organised by the National Human Rights Commission at Panchgani in December. He also said that how the children came was not the responsibility of the US authorities," said child rights activist and Gramya Resource Centre for Women secretary Jamuna.
Jamuna told rediff.com that brokers engaged in the procurement of female infants from Lambada tandas [hamlets] in districts around Hyderabad buy babies for Rs 500. The usual rates are Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Some brokers who work for well-known adoption agencies are known to have bought the children at Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 last summer. Moreover, in some cases, brokers "book" in advance babies in their mothers' wombs, she added.
"We have been working for women and child rights for quite some time. We, in fact, constituted a fact-finding team that went into all tandas in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy and Medak districts around Hyderabad. I and Rukmini Rao, another child rights activist, went around other districts in the state right from Chittoor, Nellore, Anantapur, Kurnool to Warangal, Khammam and even Visakhapatnam. We organised meetings on Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) guidelines, and the adoption process and laws," Jamuna pointed out.
"Our findings revealed that adoption agencies buy children in violation of human and child rights. They forget that children are also human beings and deny them basic rights. These adoption homes appoint many agents. They fake documents to conceal the real identity of the biological parents of the children procured. This is tantamount to kidnapping children," she explained.
The Gramya secretary claimed that many irregularities are committed by adoption homes and their agents and brokers. "The fact-finding team found that the death rates are very high in adoption homes. In fact, the overall infant mortality rate in the state is lower than what it is in the adoption homes. This is because the infants are denied mother's milk and maternal care. Proper immunisation is not done. They are treated like living commodities," she complained.
Jamuna said that it was at the behest of Gramya and other such organisations that the National Commission of Women deputed a team to probe female child trafficking in the state. "NCW member Shanta Reddy, who hails from the state, came over here head of an enquiry committee for four days, from April 7. She visited all adoption homes as the tandas. She talked to brokers, agents and people who run the adoption homes, besides women who sold their infants. She wrote to the state government, stirring the authorities into action," the Gramya secretary recalled.
On April 20, the Gramya and Deccan Development Society released findings of the fact-finding team of non-governmental organisations.
Child welfare department officials organised raids on erring adoption homes, rescued children and filed criminal cases against promoters of these homes.
"We have asked the government to enact new laws on adoptions, applicable to all sections of society. We have also pointed out loopholes in the laws and procedures so that these can be plugged. The rules on intra-country adoption pose problems. A family with two girls cannot adopt a female child. A family with two boys cannot adopt a male child. Moreover, a family with a son and a daughter cannot adopt another child - male or female. This is absurd," Jamuna pointed out.
On the other hand, she said, Indian children are given away in inter-country adoptions without a proper definition of 'family'. In the United States, two women can make a couple or two men can also be a couple. A man or a woman can also be considered a family, to adopt a child. The other grey area in Indian adoption laws concerns non-resident Indians, who want to adopt children.
The Gramya secretary also questioned the holier-than-thou attitude of some promoters of child adoption homes. "Roda Mistry of the Indian Council of Social Welfare is indignant over the controversy. She has surrendered her agency's CARA licence. She has been quoted as saying that 'the children rot, get killed'. She may be doing social service to 100 children or even 1,000 children, but there are crores of poor children in this country, and who cares for them?" Jamuna said, asking the state government to take over all records of the adoption home run by the ICSW for safe-keeping.
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