Mumbai: Penury is forcing parents to give up babies for adoption

With no income amid the COVID19caused lockdown dailywage earners slumdwellers and prostitutes have been giving up their newborns aged 15 days to eight months to an adoption centre in Ahmednagar The centre is getting calls from around 100 others from Mumbai Thane Pune Nasik Beed Aurangabad etc asking if the centre can look after their kids till things get betterDr Girish Kulkarni founder of Snehalaya an NGO that runs Snehankur Adoption Centre a Specialised Adoption Agency SAA said We are licenced to keep only 30 babies but the number has increased to 38 The additional eight babies came during the lockdown with permission of the Child Welfare Committee Three of these babies have special needs one has a hole in the heart The others are normal healthwise and include those a result of unwanted pregnanciesSnehalayaWe help families with ration kits as we cannot keep the childrens families at the centre explained Dr KulkarniAmong the callers are village sarpanches seeking help for kids of the vanjari community The community members leave their villages to cut sugarcane and this time some of them got stuck in various places due to the lockdown We provided ration kits to hundreds of such affected children staying alone with elderly grandparents said Dr KulkarniLooks after HIV positive children and infants given up by their parentThe case of prostitutesAhmednagar district has around 3500 prostitutes some of whom approached us to help take care of their babies amid lost incomes said Dr Kulkarni Approximately 4000 children are adopted yearly in India with 800 from Maharashtra The number has reduced between March and June amid the lockdown Apart from socioeconomic reasons early child marriage in most parts of Marathwada poverty sexual abuse by siblingsknown family members social stigma etc contribute to children being disowned Statistics suggest an increase in child sexual abuse casesDr Kulkarni added There are also four minor girls at our centre with us in the advanced stage of pregnancy The girls their parents are not willing to keep the infant while the childs father has been arrestedNo funds for HIVAIDSaffectedSnehalaya runs a rehabilitation centre and shelter home for nearly 350 HIVAIDSaffected children Neither are the medicines available at government centres nor are patients able to reach them amid the lockdown Without HIVAIDS medicines the children are at risk and may slip into Stage II and III and lose the battle The situation is the same for TB where without medicines children will develop drugresistant TB We have somehow managed to get some medicines for the children in the shelter but other shelters are worseoff Dr Kulkarni saidIn addition infected children have also not received the R2000 HIVAIDS government allowance We wrote to the union ministry of Women and Child Development and to the states Women and Child Development ministry regarding pending funds worth over R14 lakh but there has been no response With no government support it is difficult to meet daily expenses The only response we get is think positive We need to think practical too which they do not understand Dr Kulkarni saidNishit Kumar founder Centre for Social and Behaviour Change CommunicationNeed to promote foster careSantosh Shinde founder Vidhayak Bharati a child rights advocacy organisation in Mumbai said We need to promote foster care where instead of being sent to institutional care vulnerable children are placed with foster parents Noninstitutional care is the most important care for the holistic development of a child and institutional care even as per law is the last optionExpert speakNishit Kumar founder and managing director at Centre for Social and Behaviour Change Communication said Indias condition amid the COVID19 pandemic has resulted in violations of fundamental rights exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and unleashed a pandemic of hunger and povertyDr Girish Kulkarni founder SnehalayaFirst children in child care institutions face an enhanced level of abuse In many states where children were sent to foster homes or homed with relatives at the beginning of the lockdown do not face an uncertain future Kumar addedSecondly child marriage is on the rise mainly in rural areas where migrant population is more Thirdly there was trafficking of newborns even before the lockdown Now the situation is more acute with increased violence and abuse at home And lastly the digital divide has led to many children missing out on education This also results in mental health issues among children Kumar saidThere is not a single state where the Budget for Children is prioritised There was a reduction of state expenditure across the board and only health expenditure went up as they were dealing with the pandemic However they did not prioritise child care institutions and Standard Operating Procedures SOP to tackle outbreaks amid the lockdown Kumar saidAdoption in MaharashtraIndia has 432 adoption agencies in the 29 states Out of the 63 adoption agencies in Maharashtra 55 are Specialised Adoption Agencies run by private NGOs like Snehankur Adoption Centre Few of them are run by the Department of Women and Child Development Maharashtra The state has pioneered in adoptionAdoption numbers as per CARAYear mdash Incountry Adoption mdash Intercountry Adoption201516 mdash 3011 mdash 666201617 mdash 3210 mdash 578201718 mdash 3276 mdash 651201819 mdash 3374 mdash 653While official statistics are not in the number of adoptions for 201920 is estimated to be around 3000FlashbackThe first adoption centre in India was started by Savitribai and Mahatma Jyotirao Phule in 1848 and was named Bhrun Hatya Pratibandhak Gruh Infant Killing Prohibition Centre They are the first adoptive parents who adopted a twomonthold boy Yashwant Later a second adoption home was started at Pandharpur in Solapur It was started by Umashankar Trivedi the Magistrate at Pandharpur court in 1872 and the centre is still functional it is known as Navarange BalakashramPrajakta Kulkarni a member of CARAs Central Adoption Resource Authority steering committee has raised the issues faced by adoption centres across the country to the union ministry of Women and Child Development Some of them are CARA has not declared the admission processes of children during the pandemic nor are government hospitals are informed how to prioritise child treatment and set up special isolation zones for children Because of COVID19 centres have insufficient staff Despite every attempt the staff is not willing to come to work This will affect quality care of children At many places doctors and nurses who are the appointed staff of the centre are on leave indefinitely Day by day it is getting difficult to tackle the health issues of children in the absence of the medical staff or on video conferencing Adoption centres are facing scarcity of milk powder food grains and medicines Many adoption centres are situated in rural areas After lockdown it is difficult to purchase medicines milk powder food grain from distance as transportation is not available Many shops are running short of stock and it is possible that in future there will be a serious scarcity of daily needs In the current situation it is necessary that children be immediately adopted This action will save the lives of many childrenKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news