Kerala winks at 41 missing children

KOZHIKODE: The government has yet to act on the report of 41 children missing from a specialised adoption agency (SAA) in Idukki. Though its two designated teams had reported grave faults, the government has deputed the third team to investigate the same. As per the report submitted by State Child Protection Society (SCPS) programme manager A.S. Ganesh Kumar in December, the children of the Divine Providence Foundling Home (Karuna Bhavan) at Rajakkad, had been sent to the nearest Anganwadi, but they were not found in the admission register of the home.

The report (copy in possession of DC) says that a three-member team visited the Anganwadi and found that 28 children of the home were sent there between April 2011 and July 2016. But they were not found in the admission register of the home. Food grains for another 13 children were sent by the Anganwadi to the home, but they too don’t exist there. The report mentions the names of these 41 children which include 22 boys and 19 girls.

Mr Kumar-led team also expressed doubt over the death of a 1.2-year old girl, Angel, said to be from fits and fever. Another grave mistake was allowing adoption of three children without registering on the central government website or informing authorities Idukki district child protection officer (DCPU) Shamnad V.A. led another team that inspected the home on April 4, 2016, and found six ‘illegal’ children in the home who were not mentioned in the admission register as well as in the attendance register. The home had been filing adoption cases in an address in Ernakulam district whereas its SAA license and all other registrations are in Idukki.

Following the reports of two teams, the government had asked closure of the home on February 15, 2017, and surprisingly revoked it after two weeks. DC has learned that a minister’s intervention saved the home. SJ department director T.V. Anupama responded it was in the wake of a request from the managing trustee of the home, Mrs Teresa Thankachan. Now, the third team, including additional secretary, had theirvisit there last month. “The team would submit a report within days,” said Ms Anupama.