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Child trafficking under police lens in Madurai
Madurai police on Sunday arrested three couples for illegally adopting a child each from their mother, an official said
Madurai police on Sunday arrested three couples for illegally adopting a child each from their mother, an official said. The latest incident comes a day after the police nabbed an NGO owner and his accomplice in child trafficking case from the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border.
Child trafficking and illegal adoption are under scanner in Madurai. Police have made multiple arrests in the above two cases involving brokers, childless couples, and have rescued five children.
A senior police officer investigating Sunday’s incident said: “The mother seems mentally unstable, and she had voluntarily given away her children due to poverty.”
“We are in a dilemma because the children are being taken care of well by these adoptee families, and it has been a few years. However, the birth mother doesn’t seem fit for caregiving. So, the offence is procedural.”
The children – identical twin girls – were given away four years ago, and another girl born to the mother on her fourth delivery was given away two years ago.
The children will be produced in front of the magistrate this week for a decision. The three couples are being investigated for offences under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The case came to light after one of the accused, Kalavathi Balachandar, 33, had approached Grace Kenneth Foundation in Madurai, a specialised adoption agency recognised by the government a few years ago. Recently, she told members of the child welfare committee (CWC) that she gave birth to a baby, so she didn’t need to adopt anymore. “This raised a doubt among CWC, and we are now taking the case forward legally,” the officer quoted above said.
In another alarming child trafficking racket in Madurai, police have arrested nine people. On Saturday, they arrested the main accused G R Shivakumar, who sold children to childless couples through his prominent NGO, Idhayam Trust. He and his accomplice Mathersha had absconded and police launched a manhunt. They nabbed them from the Tamil-Nadu Kerala border. Besides them, seven others were arrested in connection with this case, including two couples. They allegedly purchased the children, a one-year-old boy for a lakh and a two-year-old girl for two-lakhs, respectively.
The prime accused and director of the NGO, Shivakumar had interchanged the death certificate of another child with that of the boy baby and claimed that he had died after his mother tested positive for Covid-19, said Madurai police commissioner Prem Anand Sinha. Azhruddeen, a local activist, had earlier sent this mother and her baby to an NGO. “When the activist found the child is missing, he suspected foul play and informed us,” Sinha said. Government officials have sealed the NGO and shifted more than 40 inmates, including adults and children to other government-run shelters.
Shivakumar and his accomplice have been booked under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulent use of documents) ,420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 80 (giving away an orphan, abandoned or surrendered child, for the adoption without following procedure), 81 (punishment for selling or buying a child) of the Juvenile Justice Act. Police are investigating if they are involved in selling any other children. “He has also misused several funds coming into the NGO, which we are looking into,” said Sinha.
To address this issue, child rights activists say that children in need of care and protection from either vulnerable or broken families have to be identified so they can be tracked and the adoption process have to be more friendly. “In both these cases, the response of the system has been very quick by rescuing children and making arrests as compared to previous years,” said Andrew Sesuraj, state convenor, Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch.
“Looking at this issue on a bigger scale, we have to simplify the adoption procedure which is mired in red tape. We have to make it more relevant for those looking to adopt so that they don’t resort to illegal ways of adopting children. Couples looking to adopt have to wait for a long time for the system to match them with a child. We have to ensure that children also don’t get stuck in this racket so every district child welfare officer should also identify vulnerable children who are born out of wedlock, who are from broken families and to parents with disabilities so these children can be tracked and if needed brought into the system for adoption.”
