Interests of many illegally adopted children are being neglected
Ashikho Pfuzhe
Dimapur | May 11
A 17-year-old Naga girl, adopted by a single mother the day she was born, was thrown out of the house after relations between the girl and her adopted mother became strained. The girl was not only denied her birth certificate and educational documents when she was forced to leave the house but was also served an ultimatum to change her name and the clan of her adopted mother.
In another case, a Naga family who adopted two non-local boys is at the receiving end as the two boys have started questioning their “real identity” and parentage and are causing a lot of problems at home. The adopted parents are perplexed as their approach to legally adopt the two boys after many years would not mitigate the tension running in the family.
These are typical instances of the dilemma faced by both adopted children and parents due to illegal adoption, which is rampant in Naga society.
According to NT Kikon, managing director of ‘Wondang Ki’, a specialized adoption agency, in Nagaland most adoptions are done illegally outside the specialized adoption agencies (SSA).
SSAs follow Section 41, sub-section 1&3 of Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of children) Act 2000/2009 along with the guidelines laid down by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) under the Ministry of Women and Child.
Citing another case, Kikon said a Naga man in his early fifties was denied of family property and asked to shift his house from the family land when his adopted father died. “He was compelled to leave for his dignity, he was compelled to trace his roots and change his clan name”, Kikon said.
‘Wondang Ki’ and ‘Mothers’ Hope’, both based in Dimapur, are the only two SSAs in Nagaland.
Kikon informed that the JJ Act emphasizes on the “best interest of the child” in all adoption processes and “to provide permanent substitute parents to a child who cannot be cared by his biological parents.”
However, in cases of illegal adoption, the “best interest of the child is totally neglected” as there is no written agreement guaranteeing protection or safeguarding the future of an adopted child.
The ‘Wondang Ki’ managing director further said that in both government and private hospitals of Nagaland, there are numerous cases of infants, born out of wedlock or abandoned, being given to others as “commodities” without going through the legal processes of adoption, which amounts to trafficking.
Recently, the Nagaland Alliance for Child Rights (NACR) in a memorandum to the Chairperson of the Nagaland State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NSCPCR) urged the later to check the rampant illegal adoptions taking place in both government and private hospitals in Nagaland. It directed that notices be served directing a stop to the practice of giving infants for adoptions from hospitals.
NACR stated that such practices not only violates the best interest of the child in the process of adoption but is also a direct violation of Government of India rules on Adoption. This offence is punishable under Section 370 IPC with imprisonment of not less than 7 years but may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine. NACR has urged that the notice may also be published in local newspapers.
