Now Reading: Telangana HC flags possible infant trafficking network, questions police
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Telangana HC flags possible infant trafficking network, questions police
Telangana HC flags possible infant trafficking network, questions police
The Telangana High Court has expressed serious concern over a possible large-scale infant trafficking network in the state and the police's failure to trace the biological parents of trafficked babies. A division…
The Telangana High Court has expressed serious concern over a possible large-scale infant trafficking network in the state and the police's failure to trace the biological parents of trafficked babies. A division bench was hearing an appeal by allegedly unauthorised adoptive parents seeking custody of a girl child rescued by police from a racket that purchased children from poor parents for illegal adoptions.
The court was told that nine children recovered in Suryapet were produced before the child welfare committee (CWC) of Nalgonda. The bench noted that police had failed to trace the biological parents of any child, questioning how this was possible given the extensive network of anganwadi workers and teachers. It also flagged that children's details were uploaded on the Central Adoption Resource Authority portal before the mandatory social investigation was completed.
The court directed the women and child welfare, social welfare and home departments to submit statewide data within two weeks on children taken into protective custody, those in homes, and beneficiaries of sponsorship and foster-care. The case was adjourned to September 2.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The High Court's observations point to a systemic gap in how state machinery tracks children at risk of trafficking. Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, the CWC must complete a social investigation before a child is declared legally free for adoption. Uploading details to the CARA portal before that step risks children being placed without exhausting the possibility of family reunification. The court's query on why anganwadi and school networks have not helped trace parents is telling: these functionaries are meant to be the state's eyes in every village under the Integrated Child Development Services scheme. With over 35,000 anganwadi centres in Telangana alone, failure to identify even one set of biological parents suggests either poor coordination or deliberate gaps.
Separately, the court questioned the legal basis for MLAs distributing cheques under the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes, observing that public funds must be spent strictly in accordance with law.
Source: deccanchronicle.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
