Children sold' in guise of adoption in Kozhikode

Kozhikode: Seven years after her blissful living with parents, one fine morning Vidya (name changed), had to reach an orphanage. Reason: her parents had not adopted her legally.

Social justice department receives many cases like that of Vidya, where they have no other option but to let the child wait for another set of parents who are ready for legal adoption.

Social justice director P. Bala Kiran, who has assumed charge, said he was just studying the issue and promised justice for such children left to suffer due to the mistakes committed by their biological as well as adopted parents.

“Awareness about adoption lacks in a state, which is advanced in many other fields. Many parents do this out of ignorance, and a few do it purposefully. This is a serious denial of child rights as the illegally adopted child is not eligible for any rightful share of the parents, once somebody launches a complaint,” said the director.

Though the adopted children are entitled to all kinds of privileges, like in the cases of biological children, when adoptions made illegally, they lose all the rights and the people behind such deeds can be convicted. The things go unnoticed when the parents have a healthy relationship. But when they split, and issues erupt over the child, they would end up an orphan again, as in the case of Vidya.

Almost all the documents regarding Vidya, in possession of this newspaper, prove that a sale deed had taken place instead of adoption, and the adopted parent was named ‘buyer’. The deed was registered in the presence of a sub-registrar and not through court. The birth certificate has one set of parents and the school leaving certificate another, ascertaining the efforts to make an illegal adoption legal.

The case is still under the consideration of Child Welfare Committee and District Child Protection Office, Kozhikode, where both the parents filed complaints against each other, and the child ended up in the orphanage.