The infamous child trafficking racket, which was busted by the Mysuru district police a year ago, has pitted a section of child rights activists against the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) that has taken custody of 16 children of couples from Karnataka and Kerala.
A maternity home in Mysuru had reportedly convinced unwed mothers to deliver babies instead of aborting them, before selling them to these childless couples.
While the activists have made out a case for handing over the children back to couples in the interest of the children, the CWC has stuck to the rulebook accusing the couples of illegally purchasing the children.
Citing provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 that considers sale and procurement of children for any purpose, including illegal adoption, as an offence, the CWC has rejected suggestions for reuniting the separated children with the couples even though they were taking care of them.
Meanwhile, the trafficked children continue to stay in four different childcare homes in Mysuru and Mandya for the last one year.
One of the 16 children, a fourteen-month-old girl, died in a home in Mandya in May this year.
Expert panel’s ruling
An expert committee comprising child rights experts, constituted by the State government to study the condition of the children last year, had favoured handing over the older children to the caregivers on “humanitarian” grounds after ruling out all perceivable risks to the children.
Child rights activist P.P. Baburaj, who earlier served the CWC and the Juvenile Justice Board in Mysuru as member, too had taken a similar position and even filed a vakalath in a Mysuru court on behalf of a few of the couples seeking the custody of the children on the grounds that there was a mutual bond between them and the children.
Mr. Baburaj has been arguing that the same Juvenile Justice Act has provisions for handing over the children under foster care. Hence, he said the CWC, in the interest of the children, should hand them over to the couples before beginning the legal process of adoption.
For, the orphaned children had a home and “parents” of their own. For no fault of theirs, the children have been detained in childcare homes, he said.
Mr. Baburaj’s stand on the trafficked children has, however, cost him a representation in the reconstituted CWC of Mysuru. Though the Selection Board headed by a retired High Court judge had chosen him among the five members for Mysuru CWC, a complaint against his position on the trafficked children has led to his appointment being put on hold by the Department of Women and Child Development, Bengaluru.
“Without knowing my arguments and facts of the case, a large number people in the child protection sector are involved in a campaign against me,” Mr. Baburaj said.