Care homes make false papers for fast buck
INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTION
KATHMANDU POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, MAR 15 –
Controversy has not stopped dogging Nepal’s inter-country adoption. There are cases galore that expose how adoption has become a money-making tool for some.
Officials at the Ministry Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) say use of falsified reports is rampant in lower level making way for adoption of even those children who are otherwise not eligible.
“The trend of putting the children with their biological parents alive for inter-country adoption is growing,” said an official at the MoWCSW.
As per the adoption regulations, a child with his/ her biological parents alive cannot be put for adoption.
MoWCSW has recently traced at least half a dozen children ‘set for adoption’ by registered orphanages. Those children were not ‘genuine orphans’ and were not eligible for adoption, said the official.
Last month, a couple from Nuwakot succeeded in retrieving their two children who otherwise would have been adopted by a foreign couple.
A registered orphanage, Helpless Children Protection Homes, Lalitpur, had forwarded the names of the children presenting false documents.
An American couple was ready to adopt the children but in the nick of time, the couple claimed biological parenthood. Subsequently, the prospective parents refused to adopt them.
The orphanage home under question had hoodwinked the local administration and the ministry five years ago to let an American couple adopt two children, who also had their biological parents alive.
MoWCSW spokesperson Tilak Ram Sharma said, in a bid to check such anomalies, the ministry has started re-verifying all the children put for adoption. “We assure that such case will not repeat in future,” said Sharma. He stressed on need for strong laws and effective implementation.
While care homes are in the race of fake adoption for quick buck, concerned ministry officials also have been found to have been involved in forwarding false documents. This Saturday, the Post exposed Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Sarva Dev Prasad Ojha’s involvement in handing over a child to a British couple without following due procedures.
The government last year enforced new rules for inter-country adoption after the media exposed rampant malpractice in adoption process. A month ago the Hague Conference on Private International Law had urged the government to suspend adoptions till a new strict legislation was introduced to curb such abuses.
In view of growing malpractice in the process, the U.S. State Department also has dubbed the country’s adoption process as unreliable.
Nepal is a signatory to the Hague Conference but in the lack of ratification, it is not a partner country.
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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