Whenever she returned home from school, six-year-old Chinnu (name changed), studying in Class 1, would run towards her ‘amma’, hug her, and ask her for something to eat or drink. But for over two months now, her ‘mother’ Lakshmi (name changed), a housewife, has not heard Chinnu’s voice. Speaking to The Hindu over phone from Thrissur in Kerala, Lakshmi turned emotional as she remembered the little girl who had come into her life and that of her husband Aravindan (name changed)when she was barely 27 days old.
Similarly, 13-month-old Putti (name changed) had barely started walking, holding on to the hands of her ‘amma’ Deepa (name changed), a professional in Bengaluru. She was deeply attached to not only her ‘amma’ and ‘pappa’ but also her ‘ajja’ and ‘ajji’ (grandparents), who had come into her life when she was just a month old.
Chinnu and Putti are among the 16 trafficked children separated from their caregivers and admitted to a children’s home in Mysuru, and two adoption agencies in Mandya, after the Mysuru district police busted a child trafficking racket between September and November 2016. While Lakshmi said she is depressed and haunted by the memories of Chinnu, Deepa said she now keeps a doll in Putti’s cradle.
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The interrogation of three persons involved in the abduction of the nine-month-old son of a beggar from a pavement in the temple town of Nanjangud near here in April 2016 led the police to unravel a well-oiled child trafficking racket involving two maternity homes in Mysuru. Over the last few years, the suspected traffickers have been allegedly convincing unwed mothers approaching hospitals for abortions to deliver the babies, and then sold them to childless couples not only in different parts of Karnataka and neighbouring Kerala, but also in Kenya and the United States.
In around three months between September and November this year , the police arrested eleven people, including senior paramedical staff of the hospitals and middlemen, and took custody of the 16 children — ranging from as young as a few months old to six years old — from childless couples who had purchased them paying prices ranging from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh without adhering to the legal adoption procedures.
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Emotional issues
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The emotional issues involved in cracking down upon the child trafficking racket began unspooling soon after the police took custody of the children and handed them over to government-recognised child care institutions after producing them before the Mysuru district Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
“It was heart-wrenching to see the children wail in the childcare home,” said a senior police official.
“The children had bonded with the caregivers and looked to them as their parents. The older ones had even begun going to schools. Their separation will lead to depression,” cautioned P.P. Baburaj, an advocate and a former member of Mysuru district CWC.
When the police admitted all the 16 children in the same children’s home in Mysuru, the management pointed out that the pressure on their institution needed to be eased as the admissions had crossed its capacity. The authorities then shifted most of the children to two different adoption agencies in neighbouring Mandya, but they kept the “two friends” together at the children’s home in Mysuru as they had already been scarred by the trauma.
The Mysuru District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) is in no mood to make any concession. . The caregivers do not have permission to even meet the children, now housed in the children’s home in Mysuru and with adoption agencies in Mandya.
In view of the situation arising out of the separation of 16 children from their illegal caregivers, the State Government appointed an expert committee comprising child rights activist Nina Nayak to study the situation and help sort out issues.