‘She strikes baby sale deals on WhatsApp’

I am being punished for doing good deeds I wonrsquot help people anymore as it has only caused me problemsrdquo says Julia Lawrence FernandesShe says ldquogood deedrdquo the police call it ldquochild traffickingrdquo The 37yearold who heads a now defunct IVF and sonography centre in Wadala stands accused of selling babies to couples who are desperate for childrenFernandes and six others were arrested by the Trombay police on October 6 2023 after one such alleged deal fell through and a newborn was rescued from the trafficking ringA crib outside municipal maternity hospital Veer Savarkar Road at Prabhadevi to provide anonymity to parents who might want to surrender infants NGO workers say that despite cribs being kept outside their premises for safe surrender of babies very few actually use these File picldquoFernandes was negotiating with someone and was about to sell the baby but the deal was cancelled and she asked her driver to keep the baby We were able to rescue the girl childrdquo say police sourcesThe adoption lsquoagentrsquo has been charged in not one but seven such cases and cops claim she is the mastermind behind the entire racket She is now out on bailFernandes on the other hand claims she was framed ldquoI am a mother of two children how can I sell babies In all seven cases the police have not been able to prove anything and the court has granted me bail due to lack of evidence I have been falsely implicatedrdquo she tells Sunday middayOut on bail alleged adoption agent Julia Fernandes insists that she was helping a childless couple and says the police have framed her for child trafficking PicKirti Surve ParadeThis wasnrsquot the first time Fernandes was arrested In 2017 the Wadala TT police apprehended her on charges of selling an infant Again Fernandes claims thatshe was simply trying to help a childless couple ldquoI had introduced a couple who had an unwanted child to another couple who wanted a child I arranged for a lawyer and the baby was supposed to be adopted after a full legal process was followed by the civil courtrdquo she saysItrsquos not out of the goodness of her heart that she facilitated this meeting say police officers According to the cops Fernandes charges prospective parents lakhs in exchange for a baby She allegedly then sources the infants from povertystricken families for a fraction of the amount they sayMost of Fernandesrsquos customers hail from Maharashtra say the police adding that she allegedly sourced babies from the slums of Mumbai Thane and KalyanGay men began to adopt soon after decriminalisation of samesex relationships and now await legal clarity on their parental rights File picGetty ImagesldquoNegotiations are done on WhatsApp She sends photos of the babies through the same app She also convinces couples with an unwanted baby to sell the infant We have established all the digital evidence against herrdquo the officers say adding ldquoShe thinks babies are commodities to be purchased from the marketrdquoChild traffickers have no shortage of buyers in India where adoption procedures can take as long as three to five years with no guarantee that the prospective parents will get a child at the end of their wait There is however a dearth of children available for legal adoption According to the Central Adoption Resource Authority CARA there are 34801 prospective adoptive parents PAPs waiting to find a match from the far smaller group of 2144 children up for adoptionThe demandsupply gap accompanied by bureaucratic delays and draconian restrictionsmdashincluding who can and canrsquot legally adoptmdashhave pushed many couples yearning for parenthood straight into the snare of babyselling touts The rescued babies are sent to the CWC approved NGOrsquos for further careAdoption activist Neha Goel with her adopted daughter Oorvi 7 and biological son Ojas 11 Goel now helps prospective parents navigate tedious red tapeBut what happens when these rackets get busted For one adoptive father based in Hyderabad it was his worst nightmare comes true After struggling for years with the onerous adoption process he gave in to temptation and opted to adopt through an agent But within a couple of months as the Hyderabad police began a massive crackdown on adoption rackets running in the city his adopted sonmdasha oneyearoldmdash was taken away by the copsldquoThe baby came into my life just a couple of months ago and then the police came and snatched my child away from me I am devastated I cared for him nurtured him I want my baby backrdquo he tells Sunday middayWith adoption queues only getting longer these rackets now seem to be at an alltime high The past year alone Mumbai police have made at least three big busts According to data provided by the crime branch as many as 41 individuals have been arrested in these raids and at least 13 infants have been rescued from the racketeers over the past yearReetu Uday Kugaji and her husband Uday B Kugaji who gave up on their dream of adoption after a nineyear waitMost of these arrests have been made in the weeks since April 27 when the Mumbai crime branch blew the lid off an interstate racket operating across Maharashtra 15 accused arrested from the state Andhra Pradesh seven and Telangana nine It started with the arrest of alleged tout Kanta Pendekar in Vikhroli after cops were tipped off that she had sold a fivemonthold child to a couple in Ratnagiri for R2 lakh They then found more such cases in Malad and Latur as wellAs the sleuths investigated further they discovered that the trafficking ring had spread its tendrils as far as Nizamabad Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam The racketeersrsquo modus operandi became especially clear in Hyderabad an IVF hub ldquoWe arrested 26 women five men and one doctor in this matter Most of the women had been working as agents who donated eggs in IVF centres in Hyderabadrdquo says DCP enforcement Ragasudha RAccording to the police the agents would find easy targets at these facilities among couples who had already gone through multiple rounds of IVF in their desperation for a child to no avail Cops said the touts would also find couples or single mothers who brought their unwanted children to the IVF centres in the hope of rehoming them The agents would then persuade these parents to sell their babiesDCP Ragasudha R and Vivek AnandThe police suspects some of the racketeers may have even resorted to child theft Investigators found numerous photos of toddlers on the phones of two of the arrested womenmdashTabassum Sain from Ratnagiri and Safiya Ali from Grant Roadmdashhinting at a larger trafficking racket possibly fuelled by child theftldquoThe accused sold babies to prospective parents for R7 lakh and each of them got a share of R40000 to R50000rdquo says an officer adding ldquoAll of the agents do not know each other but some of them had developed a network that was fully functional over WhatsApp and photos of the babies were also sent to prospective parents on WhatsApp The babies were then moved via public transportrdquoAdoption activist Neha Goel who runs a toy store in Gurgaon and works with NGOs to counsel PAPs says she knows exactly why the wait for a child is getting longer ldquoCOVID19 is why we are experiencing delays like never beforerdquo says Goel adding ldquoThe average wait time for a child was around two years or maximum three but now we are seeing a delay of four years or more Which is why desperation among PAPs is reaching a breaking pointrdquoFounders of WAIC l Meera Marthi Smriti Gupta and Protima SharmaldquoWhen a PAP registers for adoption they get what is called a lsquoreferralrsquo which is basically the baby that is matched to them This referral should be sent within a few months of registration but I know of a case where the couple had registered in 2020 and is yet to receive even a referralrdquo says the activistRecently the couplesrsquo gynaecologist informed them that an unwanted infant had been born in the hospital ldquoThe woman who was desperate for a baby was extremely tempted at first When she told me about it I had to impress upon her the risk of taking up this offer I kept telling her that itrsquos a matter of only six to seven months but she was having a sort of breakdownrdquo Goel addsThe activist herself adopted a child from Mumbai She says this is the only city where an adoption hearing takes place in the High Court in other cities adoption hearings are conducted in district courts Unfortunately for prospective parents looking to adopt from Mumbai this means even further delays as the HC will have fewer court dates available compared to a district courtFrom selecting a child based on photographs on WhatsApp to getting the infant delivered to their arms within days and not yearsmdashthe temptation to take the illegal route is hard to resist for many aspiring parents especially for those who are barred from legal adoption like unmarried and samesex couples The arrest of a Thanebased gay man in May for purchasing a baby for R45 lakh is yet another grim reminder of the inequality surrounding gay marriage and adoption rightsA member of Mumbairsquos LGBTQiA community revealed ldquoAfter the person was arrested in Thane there is intense fear among the queer community If people are trying to find indirect ways to adopt a kid they are not talking about itrdquoHomophobia and stigma are another concern that hold back prospective parents they said ldquoPeople from the community think lsquoWhy to destroy a childrsquos lifersquo If they do adopt the child will be constantly teased that their parents belong to the queer community People feel that the child would be better off being an orphan because society will never change even if the law doesrdquo they addA gay man from the city who along with his partner has adopted the daughter of their domestic worker tells Sunday midday ldquoAround seven years ago our domestic worker got pregnant but didnrsquot have the money to support a child So we adopted the baby girl and her biological mother lives with us too The mother is happy too because she feels the child is well taken care ofrdquoldquoOur child doesnrsquot have any idea that the house help is her mother She is too young now we plan to tell her when we think she can take it but it will be extremely difficultrdquo he confesses adding ldquoWhat choice did we have We wanted a baby so bad and this country will never let us adopt onerdquoThe child has recently turned six attends school where the management is aware of the parenting and living arrangements between the gay couple and their domestic worker but neither the parents nor the school authorities have spelled it out ldquoWe attend all the school meetings with the mother since she is not literate The school does know that the mother lives with us too but they havenrsquot asked us much about it and neither have we told them muchrdquo says the couple adding ldquoWe think they have a fair idea of what the situation is because a few teachers have asked her the childrsquos mother if all is well and tried to probe if we are forcing them to live with us But the mother has always told the truth so for now this is the best we can getrdquoLegally samesex couples currently cannot jointly adopt in India because they do not fit into the three categories of PAPs recognised by CARA regulationsmdashheterosexual couples who have been married for at least two years single men who are allowed to adopt only boys and single women who are eligible to adopt both boys and girlsThe law though may soon look upon the queer community with a kinder eye after the Supreme Court in October 2023 struck down CARArsquos Regulation 53 with Chief Justice of India CJI D Y Chandrachud saying it is violative of the rights of the queer community and that the CARA has exceeded its authority in barring unmarried couples from adopting childrenThis means that while samesex couples will still not be able to adopt a child together a single gay man or lesbian can adopt a child and then choose to coparent with their partner CARA however is yet to draft new guidelines in conformity with the SCrsquos verdictldquoThe law needs to catch up quickly with the needs of the queer community who are desperate to have children and share their love with a baby I hope it does catch uphellipI really dordquo says Vivek Anand chief executive officer of Humsafar Trust an NGO working for LGBTQiA rightsSurrogacy too has been put firmly out of reach for samesex couples with the recent revision of surrogacy law in November 2023 The law now states that only those who cannot conceive a child or have infertility issues will be allowed to go the surrogacy route thereby disqualifying them by defaultAccording to Meera Gudlie district women and child development officer Mumbai suburban region the adoption process is stringent for a very good reasonmdashto ensure the childrsquos safety Once adoptions are complete the child cannot be returned and the authorities must get it right in one goldquoThe process is stringent so that we can ensure a safe and healthy environment for the child The main aim is that the child must feel protected and comfortable in their adopted family and homerdquo she saidUNICEF in a 2011 report titled Children of The World had revealed that 296 million children in India were abandoned andor orphaned Despite this adoption rates are low but therersquos a reason for that too Itrsquos a massive challenge for government agencies to prove that a child is ldquofree for adoptionrdquo to ensure that no long lost parent or relative turns up later to claim the adopted child as theirs says GoelThis process involves a newspaper advertisement being issued over three to four months to check if there are any claimants for the child Then the childrsquos documentation process to be inducted into the freeforadoption category takes another few months ldquoThis process is further prolonged as CARA has to spend a lot of money as well as human resources on these ads and on going to the spot where the child was first abandoned asking the locals if they know the parents Tracing the parents is next to impossible because the child is usually abandoned at temples outside police stations or even in garbage binsrdquo says GoelThis she says prolongs the process by a good three years at least Unfortunately most infants are abandoned in this manner because people are afraid to hand the child over to the authorities fearing legal actionWhich is why many adoption activists like Goel have been trying to create awareness about the concept of Safe Surrender under the Juvenile Justice Act ldquoUnder this law the parents can go to an NGO or even the police and tell them that they want to surrender their child The law is made to ensure that the biological parent will not be jailed or punished if they hand over the child to the authorities Usually NGOs will give them a form which they can fill out to instantly surrender their child legally no consequencesrdquo says GoelThe advantage ldquoThese kids are processed and get the adoption referral within a monthrdquoIn 2019 three womenmdashMeera Marthi Protima Sharma and Smriti Guptamdashwho were trying to adopt a child formed an organisation called Child Welfare and Action Foundation also known as Where Are Indiarsquos Children WAIC The women had been struggling with their own individual journeys to find a child for a few years and realised that the biggest hurdle in timely adoption was proving that the kids were free for adoptionldquoWhen I went to visit a shelter I saw a baby girl and asked if I could adopt her I was told that she had been found in a toilet I was told I couldnrsquot adopt her and that she would be raised by the shelterrdquo says Smriti Gupta Confused as to why she got a hard no from the shelter officials she decided to do some digging ldquoI came to know about the freeforadoption rule and how complicated it is which is why we started WAICrdquo adds the Pune residentWAIC works with digitisation of records of children in three statesmdashMaharashtra Telangana and Karnataka One of the key reasons for digitisation is to make a database of children who are categorised as abandoned orphaned and surrendered by CARAmdashthere are 22 such categories as well as subcategories ldquoWhat this helps us do is to identify say 20 out of 100 kids from those three categories and our organisation then talks to shelters to see if these children can be put into the CARA system as soon as possiblerdquo says GuptaAnother important marker for freeforadoption children is the last physical visit by a family member or a phone call ldquoIf a child has had one year of no contact with any relative then we talk to the CWC as well as the shelter to get them transferred to the freeforadoption category And this is the biggest challenge because according to the law there is no particular window of time in which to show no visitations The law only says that the CWC has to look into the case where a child has not been visited The law has to be prescriptive and itrsquos notrdquo Gupta saysMost authorities are riskaverse and do not want to take the call of declaring the child free for adoption says the WAIC member ldquoThis often leads to a childrsquos status being in limbo for years together The fear is that if someone can turn up to claim the child after five years of no contact which is where we push the laws of the Juvenile Justice Act wherein the family is given a notice of 30 days for a visit We then persist to make sure that the child is then recategorised to be adopted if no family turns uprdquo Gupta addsThese arbitrary regulations have stumped many aspiring parents Nerul resident Reetu Uday Kugaji 48 tried her utmost to adopt a child but gave up after a nineyear struggle ldquoIt was so bizarre They adoption workers were so shocked that I had no fertility issues and still wanted to adopt We never heard from them againrdquo recalls Kugaji a chefldquoWhen I visited the NGO all those years ago there were children who looked like they had been there for a while It broke my heart What a waste there are millions of couples waiting to shower a child with love and even more children who are waiting for that love desperatelyrdquo she saysKujagi who has made peace with the disappointment in the 11 years since adds ldquoI would like to tell those who are waiting for a child to not get desperate and get into this buying racket If it happens it was meant to be If it doesnrsquot that too was written in the starsrdquoRs 40K50Kestimated share of a babytout if the baby sells for Rs 7 lakh3year process1 Application The prospective adoptive parents PAPs apply for wwadoption on the CARA website Documents must be uploaded within 30 days of registration2 Home Study PAPs apply to the nearest specialized adoption agency or district child protection unit for conducting the Home Study Home Study Report is valid for three years after which if PAPs donrsquot get a child they have to restart entire process3 Baby matching Next the PAPs get a ldquoreferralrdquo which is basically a baby that is matched to them This referral is sent in a few months after registration4 Interview At this point the PAPs meet an official from the closest CARAapproved NGO5 Paperwork PAPs are asked to fill out more forms show bank account details and are asked to initiate insurance policy for the adoptive child6 Follow up With all the formalities completed all that remains is for CARA to confirm adoption This final step can take anywhere from six months to three years