When kids become commodities

We all love kids here right We think theyrsquore precious innocent adorable kissable and all thatmdashright We want the best for themmdashrightLook no further than Gaza to realise how much children matter not just to Israel but also to America and the other countries who continue scolding Israel while shipping them arms to help them continue the merciless warThis war has already uprooted over a million children from their homes separating about 17000 from their families The CommissionerGeneral of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees Philippe Lazzarini calling it ldquoa war on childrenrdquo said that 12300 children have been killed in the last four months of Gaza Thatrsquos more than the global total of the last four years 12193So yes we do seem to love children a lotAs though we need more reminding this week Netflix released Scoop a dramatised documentary about the millionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his ldquonubilesrdquomdashhis network of hundreds of underage girls and young women just past their teens all vulnerable and disadvantaged and easily seduced for a few hundred dollars per lsquosessionrsquo Epstein made his nubiles available to powerful rich men such as Prince Andrew leaving the girls abused traumatised and emotionally scarred for lifeHerersquos the big pictureApproximately one in seven children have been solicited for sex onlineApproximately one in five girls and one in 13 boys experience sexual abuse at some point in childhoodAbout 34 per cent of victims of sexual assault and rape are under age 12Around 93 per cent of children who are victims of sexual assault know their assailantThe majority of child victims are trafficked within their own countries of residence rather than across bordersIn case yoursquore feeling smug this is not a Western perversion just ask Indiarsquos National Crime Records Bureau One Indian child disappears every eight minutes often straight from their homes or tricked by child traffickers to be bought and sold in the market to be sexually exploited as slaves for free labour or to be forced to beg And those are only the reported casesIf there was a time when children played with toys we live in a world today where children are the toys society plays with Children are commoditiesWell you say isnrsquot adoption the opposite of abuse Surely thatrsquos an example of compassionate people choosing a deprived child and making it the object of their love and affection No argument theremdashbut in unexpected ways the adoption process makes the infant a commodity just as much as abuse doesAn NDTV report last year put the number of orphans in India at about three crore Only about 4000 are available for adoption each year to about 40000 prospective adoptive parents Indian adoptions both national and international have been coordinated by the Central Adoption Resource Authority CARA an autonomous and statutory body of the Ministry of Women and Child Development harmonised with the provisions of the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption which the Government of India ratified in 2003Sherry Zutshi in Bangalore is one of the women who went to CARArsquos website and applied for a baby In her early 40s she was eligible for a child up to two years old She kept her preferences minimal asking only that it be from Kashmir but later even removing that requirementAs CARA required she found a local NGO that would screen her conduct the home visit and write the evaluation report She was told the wait could be two years or moreAfter four years of nothing approaching 47 years of age Sherry decided that she no longer wanted to adopt a child Then she received a letter showing her the first of the three optional babies handpicked for her by the Ministry along with some factual details such as the babyrsquos height weight and some milestonesIf she rejected this infant she would be shown another up to a total of threeIf that isnrsquot like buying something in a mart Irsquom not sure what is The process sounds unpleasantly like potato shopping at an online store The child is a record in a database Based on a photo and numbers on a sheet of paper it may be rejected like a defective product and the shopper will be shown a new oneMore important even in a deeply committed adoption home a baby is often one of hundreds under the care of a dozen or so hardworking ayahs struggling to give each baby at least a little love along with the bottled milk Itrsquos a daunting task In batchprocessing mode it is awfully difficult to deliver the sustained warmth of skin on skin the cuddles smiles and eyetoeye contact that create security and build social skills a baby needs At the moment of adoption the adopted child is very often a blankeyed template for a future human starved of human touch Like a trafficked child it is a statistic not a person yetIf she comes alive it will be because of the stardust of love she found with her new parentsYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper