Trafficking of newborns turns murkier, darker

A demandsupply mismatch between babies up for adoption and parents willing to adopt them, and couples desperate to sidestep legal formalities, fuels the racket

The single-storey small house is surrounded by a patch of land where vegetables are grown. Inside, a married couple with a daughter is just like millions in rural Bengal. But the Das family (name changed) in Brahminpara, Maslandpur , around 60 kms from Kolkata, is vastly different from the others.

They are but the first part of a clandestine chain, which starts from normal pregnancy in rural Bengal and leads to an international baby sale racket. But the racket which was busted last month by the criminal investigation department (CID) could just be the hint of a major malaise in the state.

The baby sale racket in West Bengal, which was busted last month by the criminal investigation department (CID), could just be the hint of a major underlying malaise in the state.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Such rackets are spread across the state. The child welfare committee has been getting fewer and fewer babies over the years. The babies are actually channelised through the illegal system. The missing children should also be added to this list. For instance, 14 children were reported missing from Pilkhana area in Howrah in 2013, but the matter is under wraps now,” said Amita Sen, former CWC member and social activist.

An HT investigation found that the scam usually takes shape when a poor couple who already have a child, realises that another one is on the way. Scamsters target these couples and steal the baby when it is born in a small, dingy nursing home, the likes of which have mushroomed in rural Bengal. Parents are usually told that the baby was stillborn.

The racket is spread over most of the 19 districts of West Bengal, including Kolkata. The scam services a growing demand for babies for adoption. Many of the babies ultimately reach families in the US and Europe.

“After my delivery in a nursing home in April 2014, I was told that my baby daughter has a hole in her heart. The doctor took us to another nursing home in Kolkata. The next day they declared our baby dead. We were given a dead body, but now I think it was not ours. The doctor who took me was recently arrested. Now I am told my baby was sold off,” Chandana Das of Maslandpur, about 60 km from Kolkata, told HT.

Chandana is just one among the many mothers who were duped and their babies sold.

“Is there any chance I will get my daughter back? All this time I thought my baby was dead, but now I know that she is alive, I want her back,” she says, with tears in her eyes.

In Baduria, half-an-hour’s drive from Chandana’s house, is another vital link in the baby racket chain. Along the main road is ‘Sohan Nursing home’— a dingy, 10-roomed setup that almost exclusively functions as a maternity home.

On November 21, the CID rescued three babies kept in medicine cartons, in an operation that blew the lid off the biggest baby sale racket in Bengal.

“The nursing home owner and the doctor have good political and police contacts. So no one dared to oppose them. Many women came and babies were delivered. The cops come to extract money from hawkers, so don’t you understand the links, since these people were selling babies?” asks Babul Mondol, a local of Baduria.

It is obvious that such rackets cannot thrive without the patronage of grassroot level political leaders. But the CID has been able to arrest only a BJP leader (formerly with the CPI-M), Dilip Ghosh. He is also a doctor who lives in Salt Lake and owns a nursing home.

A massive demand-supply mismatch and couples desperate to sidestep a lengthy legal formality also fuels the racket.

“The official process of adoption offers far fewer babies than the demand. Thousands of couples are waiting to take babies home. It is to service this demand that these rackets thrive,” said Amod K Kanth, former DGP of Arunachal Pradesh and chairperson, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights. He also heads Prayas, a national NGO.

“Earlier, babies were either stolen or sold off by poor parents and channelised through such rackets. This trend of duping parents is unique,” Kanth added.

Jaideb Majumder, member of the central advisory committee on adoption, union ministry of women and child welfare said couples were not willing to wait for the formal adoption process, where the wait was an endless one.

“Couples do not want to wait and are so desperate that they are ready to shell out lakhs of rupees. This has created and sustained the illegal racket, where you pay the price and take the baby of your choice home. Newborns are preferred to the older ones, since couples want babies without any imprints in their mind.”

Couples are shown pictures first, and the babies afterwards.

After paying the agreed sum of money, the baby is either delivered home with the fake birth certificate, or the couple is allowed to collect it from the nursing homes -- almost as quick and easy as buying clothes or shoes online.

For foreign couples, NGOs are often focal points for adopting babies.

The racket channelises newborns stolen from government hospitals, babies from unwed mothers and in some cases, babies that are voluntarily sold off by couples.

According to an investigator, darkcomplexioned girls are sold for anywhere between ₹80,000 and ₹1 lakh, while fair ones fetch as much as ₹1.5 lakh.

Male infants were sold for ₹ 2 lakh or more. The seizure of foreign currency from Partha Chatterjee, owner of one of the nursing homes involved in the racket in College Street, Kolkata, points towards a foreign link in the whole racket. “So far we have come to know that they sold a baby to a US-based childless couple for ₹ 6 lakh. After getting the foreign currencies and gold from Partha Chatterjee, we are sure that this racket had connections to childless couples abroad,” a CID investigator said.

Raids in different parts of West Bengal showed how tragic it had turned out to be, for some of the stolen babies.

The scamsters had mindlessly dumped them in garbage bins and behind bushes. Some even threw them into the rivers in the city and beyond.

After my delivery in a nursing home in April 2014, I was told that my baby daughter has a hole in her heart. The doctor took us to another nursing home for treatment. The next day they declared our baby dead. CHAN DANA nD AS, nD up ed np a rent Such rackets are spread across the state. The child welfare committee has been getting fewer and fewer babies over the years. The babies are actually channelised through the illegal system. AMITAnSEN, nActivistn