Click to play videoHyderabad: A CNN-IBN Special Investigation has revealed that not all children given in adoption are orphans and families are sometimes duped into surrendering their children.
Take for instance 31-year-old Chaya Maria Schupp, who has come from Germany looking for her birth mother from Mangalore.
“My mother was good but she was a single mother and there was no father,” said Chaya.
Chaya spent the first seven years of her life with her Indian mother before a German family adopted her. Chaya's is still to find her mother.
“In my case there are no records. I cannot believe it,” says Chaya.
Sister Theresa Maria was responsible for over 500 illegal adoptions uncovered in 2001, after which Andhra Pradesh placed a ban on foreign adoptions. Fathima was one of her victims. Unable to pay for her caesarian operation, Theresa kept her baby as collateral.
“Sister Theresa Maria told Anusha that her mother is dead. She had told me to sign on a paper and when I asked her where my daughter is she said you had signed on it,” says Fathima.
But Fathima could never have a child again as she had been sterilized.
“Now I cannot have children,” says Fathima.
Her daughter Anusha now lives with her adopted family in Germany. Internet activism and a DNA test matched the mother and daughter. Fathima hopes when Anusha grows older she will come back to meet her.
“Once she is older she can come and see me,” says Fathima.
All these 28 girls are stuck at Theresa's Tender Loving Care Home caught in a six-year stalemate.
Sister Theresa won't allow Indian couples to adopt them and the Andhra State Government won't let them to go foreign families.
“For these 28 children, we have given more then 50 babies to the national, these are all rejected children,” said Sister Theresa Maria.
The Central Adoption Resource Agency is expected to ensure that mothers like Fathima are not duped into giving up their children for adoption and that the 28 girls at Sister Theresa's home are not held hostage and actually find a home. But sadly, that is not happening.
(With inputs from Priyanjana Dutta)
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