Raid transgender deras to rescue illegally adopted kids: Panel to Haryana DGP
Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Chandigarh, June 28
The Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) has recommended Director General of Police (DGP) PK Agrawal to form special teams to rescue illegally adopted children from the deras run by transgenders across the state.
Most abandoned children are girls
Mostly, parents leave their girl child in these deras. Transgenders can’t adopt kids legally. Also, these deras are located in aloof localities, which cast doubt on activities carried out there. Jyoti Bainda, HSCPCR Chairperson
The commission has made the recommendation to the DGP after visiting a number of such deras in the state.
In Dadli Kheda dera at Narwana, a two-month-old girl child was found illegally adopted by mahant Resham Ma. As Resham failed to produce any proof of adoption, the commission took the custody of the girl and sent her to a Child Care Institution.
In Jind, two girls aged two and 17 were found illegally adopted in a transgenders’ dera by mahant Meenu and Seema. No adoption proof or any surrender deed was available with them whereas the Aadhaar cards of the girls found a mention of transgenders Meenu and Seema as parents. They said the girls were found at their doorstep.
Meanwhile, a boy recently managed to escape from the custody of a transgender dera in Jhajjar district. He said his parents had handed him over to the dera.
The commission rescued another four-year-old girl from a Pinjore dera and handed her over to her biological parents after following the due process at the local police station.
“Most of the time parents leave their girl child in these deras. Transgenders can’t adopt children legally,” said HSCPCR chairperson Jyoti Bainda. She said also, these deras were located in aloof localities and narrow streets, which cast doubt on the activities carried out on the premises. Moreover, there was constant movement of outsiders in these deras, which was not conducive for kids, she added.
“It is unimaginable that how many such deras are running in the state where children are being kept in the name of adoption,” she added.
The commission, in its letter dated June 17 to the DGP, has recommended constituting teams at the district level under the SP, comprising personnel from the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, District Child Protection Unit and Child Welfare Committees, to raid these deras for rescuing the children.
The commission called for a social investigation of the rescued children by the District Child Protection Officer and demanded action under Section 317 of the IPC (for abandoning children by parents) so that no one should take the provisions of adoption and the Juvenile Justice Act lightly. Besides, wherever the violation of Section 32 of the JJ Act was found, the provisions for punishment should also be applied, added the commission.
