The state submitted a draft action plan to the Bombay High Court earlier this week to clean up the adoption system and the proposal to decriminalise child abandoment is a part of this plan. The proposal would be sent to the Centre, state told the court, which was hearing a petition filed by Pune-based NGO Adwait Foundation against adoption agency Preet Mandir, after latter faced allegations of sale of children.
"The IPC presently criminalises abandonment of babies even by unwed mothers...The state government will request the Centre to consider decriminalising such offences and instead facilitate those mothers who are willing to retain their babies to do so through programmes and schemes such as creches or day-care centres," the draft plan says.
Since it is an offence at present, women sometimes are forced to abandon children in deserted places, where they became targets of adoption-for-money rackets, the draft says.
Under section 317 of the IPC, abandonment of a child below 12 years by parents or caretaker is a criminal offence attracting a maximum jail-term of seven years. The government has also suggested that profiles of children available for adoption, and that of potential adoptive parents should be put up on the government’s website to facilitate suitable adoptions. The next hearing will take place after four weeks.
