KOZHIKODE: The drop in the number of adoptive children in the State has been spurring a racket in the sale of kids.
According to sources, after waiting in the queue for long, childless couples fall prey to rackets which often have advocates and doctors involved in them. In 2014 alone, five such ‘sold out’ incidents were tracked and in all the cases, the children were bought by childless couples
In August, the Payyannur police registered a case against a gynaecologist and two other doctors for allegedly selling a new-born for Rs 6 lakh.
The birth/death registrar of Payyannur municipality was also accused of forging the birth certificate. There were three such cases against the same gynaecologist.
The case of a three-and-a-half year old boy sold by his mother at Adoor Government hospital was revealed recently. The kid was found to be living with his ‘foster’ mother at Enadimangalam.
In another case in Pathanamthitta, a widow gave birth to a child from an extra-marital affair and sold off the newborn to a childless couple in Ranni through a lawyer.
When the man who fathered the child decided to accept the kid and the mother, the ‘foster’ parents were unwilling to part with the child. Now the issue is before the district Child Welfare Committee.
In Kasargode, four people were held for selling a one-and-a-half-year-old boy and a six-month-old baby girl for Rs 3.25 lakh. The arrested included the father of the children.
A DySP who investigated a couple of such cases told DC that often plight of childless couples was exploited by unscrupulous elements. “Most of them are ignorant of legal procedures. When middle-men approach them with a lawyer and a doctor, they succumb,” he said.
