Rehabilitation of disabled infants cause for concern
C. Maya
Thiruvananthapuram: The rehabilitation of abandoned infants with disabilities is turning out to be a major issue for the State Child Welfare Council as there are few people to adopt such children.
Fifteen infants at the foundling home of the council in the city remain `rejected,’ even as the council has a waiting list of 682 childless couples who have registered with it for adoption.
An abandoned child can be placed for adoption only after the probation officer of the Juvenile Welfare Board, under the Social Welfare Department conducts enquiries and gives legal clearance, that the child has no claimants and can be given away for adoption.
There are thus seven other infants whom the council cannot place for adoption because they are not legally `free’ for adoption. The infants were born to mentally unsound mothers and unless the women give their consent, they cannot be given in adoption.
The council can keep the infants in its foundling home only till they are six years old, after which they would have to be sent away to one of the juvenile homes run by the Government.
“Foster care is a concept that people here are still unwilling to accept. The infants, instead of being put in an institution, can be rehabilitated in a proper home environment. The child gets to grow up in a loving environment and families can adopt the child when he or she turns 18, if there are no other legal hurdles. There is an ever-growing list of childless couples wanting to adopt a baby, but in the past two years, we have had just two families who have come forward, willing to be foster parents,” says Elizabeth Rozario, the administrator of the council. Forty children have been adopted from the council during the past one-and-a-half years and several others had to be sent to juvenile homes as they could not be given in adoption before they turned six. “We also have several infants whom none wants to adopt just because they are not fair complexioned or because they are not pretty enough. We cannot force anyone to adopt any particular infant, but people should think whether they would reject their biological child if she or he were not good-looking,” adds Ms. Rozario.
Though it has been nearly 40 years since the council was set up, it is yet to evolve into an institution that can effectively intervene in the rehabilitation of orphaned, abused or abandoned children anywhere in the State. Though district councils have been set up, none of these has any foundling homes attached to it except the one in Malappuram district. The council plans to set up `Amma’ electronic cradles attached to Kozhikode, Palakkad, Kollam, Idukki and Pathanamthitta district child welfare councils soon.
URL: – http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/07/stories/2006060723930300.htm