Kerala adoption row: Anupama gets custody of her child

The months-long fight of a Kerala woman to get back her child that was given by her father for adoption reached its logical conclusion on Wednesday with a family court in Thiruvananthapuram returning the one-year-old child to the mother.

Thiruvananthapuram-native Anupama Chandran was handed over the child by the family court in the presence of her partner Ajith. They named the child Aiden Anu Ajith.

The incident has put the CPM government in Kerala on the defensive as government agencies were found to have made serious manipulations allegedly under the pressure of Anupama's father Jayachandran, who is a local CPM leader.

The child was declared legally free for adoption by the child welfare committee by suppressing the claims being made by Anupama.

The child that was already handed over to a couple from Andhra Pradesh for pre-adoption foster care was taken back the other day. A subsequent DNA test proved that Anupama and Ajith are the biological parents of the child. Based on this the family court in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday handed over the child to Anupama and Ajith.

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Meanwhile, an inquiry by the Kerala Women and Child Development Department reportedly brought to light the serious irregularities by the child welfare committee as well as the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare, the specialised adoption agency. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is the president of the council. The council even tried to change the gender of the child and destroy evidence of Anupama and Ajith approaching them seeking the child.

Anupama said after receiving the child that she would continue her stir seeking action against those who made the manipulations.

Anupama delivered the child in October 2020. Her father Jayachandran gave the child for adoption as Anupama was unmarried and her partner Ajith was then married to another woman. Anupama said that Ajith was from a Dalit community and hence her family was opposed to the relationship. She said that her father assured her that the child would be returned after her sister's marriage. But as he failed to keep his word Anupama started the fight for getting back the child.

From April onwards Anupama was approaching the authorities. Even though the process for declaring the child legally free for adoption was then pending Anupama's pleas were rejected. Anupama, who was a worker of CPM's student wing Students Federation of India, even reportedly approached senior women leaders of CPM including Brinda Karat. CPM leader P K Sreemathi told a television channel that she had taken up the matter with the Chief Minister's office also.

But the actions on Anupama's plight began only last month after Anupama started stir in front of the government secretariat.