Thiruvananthapuram: Yet another child has been at the centre of a knotty adoption process involving the state government agency. Close on the heels of the disputed adoption of a baby boy born to former student activist Anupama S Chandran and her successful public struggle to get him back, it has come to light that the Child Welfare Committee had to return another baby, a girl, which was abandoned nine months ago by its biological mother.
It all began when an unmarried woman who became pregnant while working in the Gulf returned to the Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram to deliver the baby. After delivery, she abandoned the baby in the electronic cradle, Ammathottil, kept at the premises of the Kerala State Child Welfare Council office at Thycaud in January.
The Child Welfare Committee, the district-level body which received the baby from the apex welfare body, named the baby girl “Sugatha" after famous poet Sugathakumari who passed away in January.
The mother had to leave the baby at the Ammathottil as her father refused to marry the woman and there was also opposition from her family members.
Ahead of giving the child for adoption, the Council had given an advertisement asking claimants, if any, to inform the authorities. By that time the woman was ready to take the child back and bring her up. For this purpose she submitted an application before the Child Welfare Committee in February.
In her application she demanded that a DNA test be conducted to confirm that she is the biological mother of the child.
With the DNA result confirming that the baby belonged to her, the girl was handed over to the woman. She was returned to her biological mother a few days ago.
Recently, the same child welfare body had to return Anupama's baby to her after the family court intervened. In this case the baby was already adopted by a couple in Andhra Pradesh and the court ordered to get him back and conduct a DNA test. Earlier, Anupama's parents had snatched the baby from her and deposited him in the Ammathottil in a bid to end her ties with an already married man, the father of the boy.
