Toddler’s death casts shadow on adoptions

The death in Texas of a three-year-old girl adopted from India a year ago has prompted renewed calls for an end to international adoptions, which campaigners say put vulnerable children at risk of abuse.

The girl’s adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, was charged on Monday with injury to a child, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum punishment of 99 years in prison, Texas police said.

The body of Sherin, who was born in India, was found in a culvert under a road. Mathews has admitted to moving her body from the family’s home in Richardson, Texas.

The toddler’s death has attracted wide coverage in India, where campaigners called for an immediate end to intercountry adoptions, which they say fail to protect children.

“Intercountry adoptions have become a lucrative market where children are effectively sold,” said activist Sujata Mody.

“It is a fallacy that these children are better off abroad; we should stop intercountry adoptions immediately,” said Mody, who has studied adoption agencies in India.

The owner of a now-closed orphanage in India where the young girl was living before a Texas couple adopted her last year says the child had no difficulty eating despite her adoptive father’s account to police when reporting her missing.

Mathews told police the girl had been malnourished when she was adopted and needed to eat whenever she was awake to help her gain weight. But orphanage owner Babitha Kumari told television station WFAA the girl had no problems and that Wesley and Sini Mathews appeared loving when they were going through the adoption process.