Hyderabad: The case of alleged child-trafficking in the guise of In Vitro Fertilisation at Universal Srushti Fertility Centre in Gopalapuram involving an infant has raised a critical question of what would happen to the baby who is currently under the protection of Shishu Vihar at Vengalrao Nagar, a state-run home for the abandoned and surrendered children.
In the present case, the biological parents of the child are presently lodged in Chanchalguda Jail under various sections for allegedly selling their baby to Dr Namratha’s fertility centre for Rs 1 lakh.
According to Hyderabad district child protection officer Srinivas, based on the court’s directions, a decision will be taken by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), whether to give the baby back to his biological parents, or to place him for adoption.
Another women and child welfare official told Siasat.com that there are abandoned and surrendered babies under the protection of Shishu Vihar. In case of babies surrendered by their parents due to different reasons, the department conducts counseling in multiple sittings for two months, to convince the parents to raise their child.
If the parents still insist on surrendering their child, affidavits will be taken from the biological parents, and then the children will be put for adoption by interested couples.
In case where the biological parents are lodged in the jail, their relatives can adopt those children as guardians.
There are presently 187 children under the protection of the women and child welfare department in Shishu Vihar in Hyderabad.
What happened to 15 children rescued in 2024
Fifteen children who were rescued in May 2024 from Medipally in Medchal Malkajgiri district, when a Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) was found to be selling them to parents for adoption.
According to Medchal district child protection officer Mohd Imtiyaz Raheem, all the 15 children were rescued and placed in Shishu Vihar, and after the go ahead given by the CWC, 7 of those babies were given for adoption, after completing the necessary procedures.
Couples who had previously purchased the babies illegally approached the High Court praying for the children to be given back to them, the Women and Child Welfare Department filed a counter to this request.
The High Court’s single-bench granted a stay order in favour of the Couples. The Women and Child Welfare Department has appealed the order. Once the case is disposed of, based on the judgement further action will be initiated to give those 8 babies for adoption, according to Imtiyaz.
Gap between rescue and investigation
In January 2024, the Special Operation Team (SOT) had conducted a sting operation in Keesara in the same district and had rescued 4 children. Interestingly, at least two of the accused in that case, were also the accused in the May 2024 raid conducted in Medipally, and also in similar cases booked in Suryapet and Rangareddy districts.
Imtiyaz who was involved in Medchal Malkajgiri rescue cases and knows the legal issues involved, tells Siasat.com that one of the issues impairing justice in such cases is that the raids are conducted by the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) and SOT, but the case is handed over to the local police station concerned.
“Because of the local police overburdened with many cases, the investigation somehow gets affected. I feel that if the AHTU is made the investigating authority in all such cases, because of their expertise in handling such crimes they will be more efficient in taking such cases to their logical end,” Imtiyaz opines.
“We have a system in place to track the deliveries in the government and private hospitals in the district, but in cases of surrogacy and child-trafficking, babies are being brought from different states through a vast and well organised trafficking network operating across the country,” he notes.
He observes that surrogacy cases are thriving in areas like Medchal, Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts, where there is a high migrant labour population. These migrants who live in poor economic conditions, go for surrogacy for as little as Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Need for adopting children in foster care homes
He also opines that the procedure for adoption needs to be made easy, and that even the couples going for adoption need to change their mindset.
“Most of these couples want to adopt babies between 0-2 years of age. They should be willing to adopt children older than that,” he opines.
Pointing out that there are foster care homes and orphanages in every district from where children between the age group of 6 and 18 are being taken care of, he appeals to the couples to adopt these children as well.
There is a foster care committee at the district-level headed by the collector. If the interested couples follow the foster care guidelines for adoption, the committee will approve placing the child under the care of these couples (prospective parents) at their homes temporarily for 6 months.
The child welfare committee will conduct an inquiry every month, and once the four stages of ratification is done, the couple will be approved to be permanent parents of the adopted child.
According to Imtiyaz, the state government has recently issued a circular to follow the central foster care guidelines, to give children in these foster care homes for adoption to prospective parents.
As for the case of Universal Srushti Fertility Centre, the Gopalapuram police have taken Dr Namratha under remand and have been interrogating her since Friday, August 1. The court has also given the police permission to take Kalyani and Santoshi, who are also accused in the case, into remand for interrogation.
Update on Dr Namratha’s interrogation
As per reports, during the interrogation by north zone Deputy Commissioner of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Gopalapuram, it was revealed that Dr Namratha and her team has been conducting medical camps in the rural areas, providing free fertility services to the poor and vulnerable women, luring them to sell their newborns to her, assuring payment after the delivery.
She would then show the baby to couples as their own child born through surrogate mothers, and would charge them for her services. Kalyani and Santoshi were found to have been tasked to deliver the newborns to Namratha.
Reports stated that Namratha ran the child trafficking network through Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and agents, and performed such deliveries in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
With the ill-gotten wealth she purchased farmhouses in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh, and purchased buildings in Kukatpally, Miyapur, Secunderabad, Yousufguda and other areas.
The case on Dr Namratha who ran the fertility centre is that she convinced a Rajasthani couple to go for surrogacy instead of the IVF procedure, and took Rs 35 lakh from them. She delivered a male child to them, claiming that it was their baby. When the couple had DNA analysis done, they found that it didn’t match theirs, raising suspicion. On receiving complaint from them, Gopalapuram police arrested Dr Namratha and her son.
