Babies, bargains and bureaucracy: the dark side of child adoption Premium

A clandestine network of illegal child adoption has recently been uncovered in Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, leaving families shattered

April 27 was a day of celebration at a four-storey apartment in the bylanes of Boduppal, a residential locality in eastern Hyderabad. It was Dhruv’s first birthday, with no expense spared by the family, which had shelled out ₹4-5 lakh to ‘get’ the boy through their go-to doctor at a nearby clinic. However, the revelry was soon to be overshadowed by a shocking revelation. Exactly 25 days later, police apprehended the doctor, Shobharani, for alleged involvement in the illegal sale of infants across Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Dhruv’s ‘parents’, Shweta (32) and Shlok (35), had been married for 13 years but were unable to conceive. Their apartment was less than a kilometre away from Shobharani’s clinic.

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“Her offer to us for a child came at a hopeless time when the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure had gone in vain and we did not hear back on an adoption request we had filed about five years ago,” says Shweta, clutching an A-5 size photo album of Dhruv’s first birthday party. “This album was printed and delivered the day he was taken away by the police,” she adds, glancing at pictures of the 14-month-old boy dressed in various fancy outfits.

Dhruv had been sold to the couple when he was just 10 days old. Desperate to become parents, Shweta and Shlok got sucked into the widespread inter-State child selling racket, layers of which are still being peeled by Telangana police.

Shobharani, a mother of two in her late 40s, was aware of the couple’s charitable disposition, particularly their willingness to support children’s education. Leveraging this information, she suggested they make the payment strictly in cash to an ‘NGO’. She claimed that the voluntary organisation matched children from impoverished families with those who could provide them a better life.

“The day we got the call, we were asked to pick up the baby boy from a road closeby. Upon our request, she agreed to hand over the baby at her clinic after running a quick medical test,” Shweta’s brother, Sumit, says. “Shobharani said the baby’s documents, including birth certificate and Aadhaar card, will be ‘arranged’ soon and asked us to take him home. Our feeling before we had him and today is the same. We have nothing in our hands,” Sumit adds.