THE HINDU

NEW DELHI: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has expressed concern over incidents of child trafficking in the name of adoption as highlighted by media reports.
The reports said a Chennai-based adoption agency fabricated records of children and placed them for adoption in 2000.
In a statement issued here on Monday, CARA chairman J.K. Mittal said action was taken against the agency on receipt of a complaint and it was de-licensed in 2002. A criminal case was also filed against the agency and the matter was pending in court.
No such incident was reported in recent times against any Indian adoption agency by any individual or agency from any part of the world, the statement said.
Strict monitoring
According to Mr. Mittal, CARA monitored the activities of all adoption agencies based in India and children were placed for adoption only after a thorough investigation of their records.
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Queensland family ‘devastated’ by Indian child trafficking claims
By Indo-Asian News Service on Monday, August 25, 2008

A Queensland family has been “absolutely devastated” by revelations that their adopted child could have been stolen from her biological parents in India and that they face the risk of the adoption being revoked.
“This is a terrible predicament for a family that loves their adopted child and for the Indian family that has lost a child and as a mother my heart goes out to them,” Queensland Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech said in a statement as her department offers support to the family concerned.
A TIME magazine report said nine-year-old Zabeen, now reportedly living in Queensland with her adoptive parents, was kidnapped in Chennai when she was two years old.
Australia’s adoption processes are rigorous and it only deals with countries that are signatories to The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption.
“Under the Hague Convention, birth parents may bring an action in an Australian Court to have the adoption revoked. However, any decision would be a matter for the courts, which would apply the principle of protecting the best interests of the child,” a spokesman for Attorney General Robert McClelland told IANS Monday.
Figures from the Attorney-General’s Department show 327 or 10 percent of overseas adoptions between 1997-98 and 2006-07 were from India.
“Under Australian law, these children are Australian citizens and the children of the adoptive parents,” the spokesman told IANS.
Few Indian children are adopted by Australian families because the Indian law requires that 50 percent of children requiring adoptive families be placed with Indian couples within India. The next priority is placing children with Indian nationals living abroad. Only a small percentage of children are adopted by non-Indian couples and tend to be older children or children with special needs.
When Australian couples have been approved to adopt from India, the Adoption Services Queensland (ASQ) makes contact with different Indian agencies to determine whether or not they will accept the couple’s file.
“I am advised that adoptions from India have to be authorised by a court. The adoption of the Queensland child who was allegedly stolen was authorised by the Madras High Court in March 2000. ASQ’s role was to approve families as suitable adoptive families and to send the file to overseas countries for processing,” Keech said.
“I am advised that ASQ dealt with the official Indian government adoption agency - The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and Malaysian Social Services (MSS), a CARA-endorsed agency. All adoption placement agencies in India had to be registered with CARA,” Keech added.
When the child theft allegations first came to light, it is said ASQ had conducted an audit of Indian children who were adopted into Queensland between 1995 and 2007. Only two of the 23 adoptions during that period were through MSS, with one of those two adoptions in 1995 - well before the period (1998-99) during which children were allegedly kidnapped in India.
Australia has offered to assist with any investigations into alleged claims that “pretty” children kidnapped from Indian slums have been adopted by Australian families.
Joining in the debate Monday, federal opposition leader Brendan Nelson has said Australia had a moral responsibility to return any children who may have been stolen.
“Let us hope the inquiry, in fact, does not find that children have been effectively kidnapped. And the right thing, we would expect in most cases, will be to look at returning them to their rightful families,” Nelson said.
Meanwhile, the state government of Tasmania is conducting its own audit of overseas adoptions.
According to a report in TIME Magazine, At least 120 children were kidnapped from slums in southern India and were sold to a Chennai-based adoption agency MSS for as little as $280, before being sent overseas. Nearly a dozen of these children have ended up being adopted in Australia

Predators on the prowl
Tuesday August 26 2008
Lakshmy Venkiteswaran
It is a crime that happens all the time, almost everywhere, but it rarely seems to register on anyone’s radar. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is much more common than people believe. Last year, in a study of over 17,000 children from 13 states, the Ministry of Women and Child Development found that over 50 per cent of them reported facing one or more forms of sexual abuse.
The abuse of a child involves a manipulative process that traps the victim in a secret relationship designed only to provide sexual gratification to the predator. Despite greater awareness today, the common perception still seems to be, ‘it doesn’t happen in my home’, or ‘it just happened once’.
The trauma suffered by 35-year old Rakesh in his school days shows how abusers never stop with one child. “My dad was diabetic so he couldn’t play with me.” His father had heard of a coach who trained boys for free in volleyball. “The training started when I was in class six. From the first day, my coach became my hero.”
“After training, he would always make me sit on his lap. Now I know that he would get an erection whenever I sat on his lap. But at that time, I didn’t understand what it was. To me, I was just happy that my coach thought I was special,” Rakesh recalls. The coach was a regular visitor to the family. When Rakesh’s father had to be hospitalised, he stayed in the coach’s house until his father returned home. Rakesh recalls that the coach made him scrub his back in the bath. Worse things happened, he says.

“I was too terrified to go back there and refused to attend training.” His older brother Ram, however, continued training until he reached high school. It wasn’t until Ram was in college that Rakesh could talk about it. And what they discovered was shocking. “Because I had stopped training, coach used Ram the same way,” he says with tears in his eyes.
Rakesh learnt that some of his teammates in school too suffered the same fate. “Nobody blames me for not telling. But I can’t help feeling that if I had told someone, maybe somebody could have stopped this. I feel ashamed that I let it happen. What’s worse is that he sodomised my brother and other kids repeatedly for many years.” The last he heard, the coach had moved to another country. Vidya Reddy of the Tulir-Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, Chennai says she has never heard of a one-time offender. “Abuse happens repeatedly. More often than not, the abuser is from the family or a friend of the family. Until we stop protecting the abuser, he/she will never stop.”
“If an incident of sexual abuse in a school, for instance, is reported, the management may fire the abuser,” Vidya adds. “But what’s stopping him from getting a job in another school in the same city or another city? Many schools don’t do background checks or crosscheck credentials.” For every case that is reported, many others go unreported. “We get almost a dozen calls every day, but in the end the victims are too scared to file a report,” says a volunteer at a help centre. Another problem in the effort to check this phenomenon is getting a verdict. “When the report is filed, the abused is a child. By the time the case comes to court, he/she is an adult,” reasons Pooja Taparia of Arpan. “Trials take a long time and they’re well into their adulthood, also shouldering societal stigma.” Vidya cites an incident in Chennai. “The lady is the principal of a well-known school in which abuse was reported. She told me her son was getting marriage proposals and if the intended bride had been sexually abused, she would not accept the proposal. To say I was stunned is an understatement.” Often, children conceal the fact of abuse to protect a loved one. “There was a girl who was abused by her best friend’s father. Whenever she visited her friend’s house, the father would fondle her,” says Pushpa Venkatraman, counsellor and trainer at Arpan. “When she informed her friend, the girl implored her to not complain.” The reason her friend gave was that her parents were always fighting and something like this would only make it worse. “The father abused the daughter too, hence the fights between the parents. Can you imagine this child’s condition?” Sometimes the abuse takes place with adults in the same room. Vidya highlighted the case of a swimming coach who fondled children while teaching them, in plain sight of parents and guardians all around the pool. “Many parents stopped sending their children to this coach. But just because you stop sending your child to this particular person, it doesn’t mean he’ll stop what he’s doing. Adult offenders never stop with one kid.” School authorities play a significant role in educating children and parents on sexual abuse. “The parent-teacher associations should evolve a specific sex education programme,” says Pinki Virani, author of Bitter Chocolate. Parents need to educate kids by answering questions about body parts. “We use every word other than the simple biological ones for penis, vagina, breasts and anus. If you don’t use the right words you cannot teach your child the difference between a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch’.” For the cases that are reported, identification and prosecution of molesters presents a serious dilemma to lawyers and activists. The recent acquittal of the two Britons accused of paedophilia by the Bombay High Court in the Anchorage Shelters case shows that a new law needs to be formulated to handle CSA effectively. Maharukh Adenwalla, the lawyer who represented the boys in this case, says the yardstick to weigh an adult’s statement in a court of law should not be applied to a child’s statement. “How can you expect children to be as coherent as an adult? Going through the trial is traumatic enough.” A case in point is Sakshi v. Union of India (2004). The child was gangraped when she was 10 and the case came to trial when she was 13. “The cross-examination lasted three days. She had to repeat the incident in the courtroom in the presence of the accused without a counsellor. In CSA cases, video conferencing should be encouraged with a counsellor present.” CSA cases are often tried under the rape law (Section 376) that says the perpetrator has to be a male and the victim female. The age of consent is 16. “The major weakness of this law is that only penile penetration is considered a grave sexual offence,” says Geetha Ramaseshan, activist-advocate, Madras High Court. “The crime is considered lesser when it is oral, or through penetration with an object. If the abused is a boy, there is no law under which a case can be filed.” In the absence of a clear law, and with convictions so difficult to get, it is no wonder that the abusers feel secure enough to continue their spree. lakshmy@epmltd.com "why doesn’t my family believe me?" “My music teacher would slap the insides of my thigh when I hit a wrong note,” recalls Latha, a working woman in her thirties. “He used to eat paan and slap my thigh. He would then rub his stained fingers on my panties. He would not move his hand for a while. And every time I sang a wrong pitch, he would pinch my vagina.” The reason for such a punishment was that she was his best student and he was doing this for her own good. Where was her mother? “My mum is a homemaker. She didn’t have anyone to help her. The only time she could buy vegetables or run errands was during my music class.” One day, when Latha cried out in pain while she urinated, her mother asked if she had hurt herself while playing. “I told her ‘master pinched me’. The next thing I remember was a stinging sensation on my cheek. She slapped me and warned me that if I ever lied again about him, she would complain to my maths teacher.” The abuse went on until Latha became a teenager and refused to train under him. “He used to come home every year for Diwali and Onam till I was in college. I told my family about everything but even now nobody believes me.” He stopped visiting for a while when her boyfriend, after listening to her ordeal, threatened him with ‘serious bodily harm’. “When physical intimacy with my boyfriend became a problem, I told him everything. He made me realise, over a period of time, that it was not my fault and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. But somehow I can’t help feeling that my family betrayed me. I don’t understand why they continue to welcome this sick man to our home.” Fact file The Ministry for Women and Child Development conducted a study on CSA in April 2007 with a sample size of 17, 220 children from 13 states. Among the results were the following: More than 53 per cent of children reported facing one or more forms of sexual abuse The majority (52.94 per cent) of victims were boys 50 per cent of the sexual offenders were known to the victim or were in positions of trust (either family member, close relative, friend or neighbour). Onset of abuse was as early as five years in some cases Boys were equally at risk as girls 73 per cent of the victims were in the 11-18 age group Delhi reported the highest abuse among boys — 65.64 per cent A study by Tulir (2006) among 2,211 school children in Chennai, revealed: CSA prevalence rate of 42 per cent 15 per cent of both boys and girls had been severely abused. 48 per cent of the abused were boys and the prevalence rate among girls was 39 per cent

Problem of child labour in India
by India Voice
August 19, 2008
Millions of children in today's world undergo the worst forms of child labor which includes Child Slavery, Child prostitution, Child Trafficking, Child Soldiers. In modern era of material and technological advancement, children in almost every country are being callously exploited. India has the dubious distinction of being the nation with the largest number of child laborers in the world. The child labors endure miserable and difficult lives. They earn little and struggle to make enough to feed themselves and their families. They do not go to school; more than half of them are unable to learn the barest skills of literacy.
Some times children are abandoned by their parents or sold to factory owners. The last two decades have seen tremendous growth of export based industries and mass production factories utilizing low technologies. They try to maintain competitive positions through low wages and low labor standards. The child laborers exactly suit their requirements. They use all means to lure the parents into giving their children on pretext of providing education and good life. In India majority of children work in industries, such as cracker making, diamond polishing, glass, brass-ware, carpet weaving, bangle making, lock making and mica cutting to name a few. 15% of the 100,000 children work in the carpet industry of Uttar Pradesh. 70-80% of the 8,000 to 50,000 children work in the glass industry in Ferozabad. In the unorganized sector child labor is paid by piece-by-piece rates that result in even longer hours for very low pay. Child labor is a global problem. If child labour is to be eradicated, the governments and agencies and those responsible for enforcement need to start doing their jobs. The most important thing is to increase awareness and keep discussing ways and means to check this problem.

A Two day Colloquium on “ Justice Delivery in Human Trafficking Crimes” for Judicial Officers, Prosecutors and Police Officers on 4th and 5th August, 2007 in collaboration with UNODC and C.I.D., A.P.
Hon’ble Sri Justice G.S.Singhvi, Chief Justice, High Court of A.P & Patron-in-Chief has addressed the gathering and set the agenda for the colloquium. Sri M.Ratan, Addl.Director General of Police, C.I.D., Nodal Officer, Anti Trafficking, A.P pointed out the efforts of the State of Andhra Pradesh in curbing human trafficking. Sri Gary Lewis, Representative, UNODC, New Delhi presented the International perspective and the efforts of the United Nations in curbing human trafficking. Dr.P.M.Nair, Project Co.ordinator, UNODC who is behind the planning for colloquium addressed the gathering and interacted with the participants. Hon’ble Sri Justice .V.Seethapathi has participated in the interactive session. Smt.T.Rajani, District and Sessions Judge / Mahila Court, Hyderabad has interacted with the participants. Ms.Aparna Bhatt, Advocate of Supreme
Court of India enlightened the audience on “Laws and recent Court Rulings on Anti-Human Trafficking”. Sri Shivdhar Reddy, D.C.P.South Zone, Hyderabad City presented the experience at Guntur and the initiative taken by the police in curbing human trafficking.
Sri Mahesh Bhagwat, Superintendent of Police (Women Protection Cell) C.I.D. presented power point presentation and interacted with the participants on the effort of the police in curbing human trafficking with practical problems.
There was a visit arranged to PRAJWALA, a N.G.O. in Old City for the participants to experience theef forts of N.G.O. and the problems faced by them on the subject. Sri S.Umapathi, I.G.P., C.I.D. Hyderabad, Dr.C.N.Gopinatha Reddy, Director, A.P.Police Academy have interacted with the participants and explained the challenges in the present law enforcement process. Sri N.Ravi Shankar, the then Director, A.P.Judicial Academy and Sri M.Bhaskar, the then Director of Prosecutions have interacted with the participants
on the role of prosecution in justice delivery in trafficking crimes and victim / witness support. Dr.Buchi Reddy, Professor of Forensic Medicine, APPA interacted with the participants on role of Forensics in age determination / D.N.A. Finger Printing. Later in the concluding session Dr.P.M.Nair, Sri T.Krishna Prasad, Superintendent of Police moderated with the participants
on plan of action in expediting justice delivery in human trafficking crimes.

كلماتٌ ..
تنزِف جُرحَنا الماضي
تحلُم بما هو آت

بعضٌ منــي
تجرأ على بَوح الكلام
ليسَ للِغناءِ والرَقص
بـَل للقَهرِ
وعُهر مَن باعونا بَلا ثَمن

قلّبوا بأوراقي حَقيقة
أني لا أعرف الملل
خُتم عليها
مَمنوع
أن يَقرأك إنسَانْ

فأنتَ مُفسدٌ للوَطَن

أعتَرِف
بأنّ حُروفي مُبعثَرةٌ
وعقلٌ هُنا يُصِيبهُ الجُنونْ
فهوَ ليسَ بغُرور
ولا كِبرياء
ولا مُجاراةً لِلأضْواء

رُحَماكَ رَبي

ضحِكٌ مَغموسٌ بالسُمْ
وقلمٌ يَرفُض أنْ يُخرَس
وفي كل دربٍ
يقالُ لــــكَ
إخرَسْ
إخرَسْ
إخرَسْ

فَلتَرقُص الأقَلام على صَوتِ أنيني
وأنْفِجار بَراكيني
وكَيف أخرَس ؟
ودمائُنا تَتدفق بَين أيديهِم
وكأنـّا قرابين معبَدِهم المُقدَس

Today is the second day in the congress and it was really very nice to meet this people from all over the world. We are here right now for few days going around many booths, knowing each other's work, and getting experience from important activist people.

Yesterday we had a meeting (dialogue) with the right honorable governor general of Canada her excellency Michel, it was fabulous to had such daialogue with her. Afterwards, there was a marvelous party where we heard music and songs. We really had lots of fun there!!

At night, and in the Pub we go to dance, some of us have drink and some others get some food but we really spend great time at there.

Edited by:
Ahmed Ragab Al-Kotby
Cesar Carvallo
Sveto Zivkovic

“Labas ki dayrin? twahachtkoum bazaf” that would be the Moroccan way to say “how are you? I miss you so much”, and that’s the sentence I would like to say to my friends in the Egypt whenever I meet them, but I know they will not understand me. My friends in the Middles East assume that Morocco is an Arab and Arabic speaking country, what they don’t know is that we’ve been doing so many efforts to understand their dialects for the sake of Arab Nationalism and Unity, and that now that the notion of Umma Al Arabia is old fashion, it’s their turn to do some effort to understand my language: Darija.

Morocco is a special mixture of cultures, languages, and races. We are probably one of the most African Arab countries, not only because of our geography, but also because it was Morocco that introduced Islam to West Africa thanks to its traders, monarchs, and Sufi brotherhoods. Morocco is probably the most Western Arab country as well, since, when other countries were colonized by one European power, my country endured the colonization of France and Spain together with city of Tanger as an international colony where all super powers had representatives there, whereas contrary to all the MENA countries, we’ve never been colonized by the Ottoman Empire. Arab Andalusia was a Moroccan project, and after the fall of Andalucía most if Spanish Arabs, liberal thinkers and Jews came to settle in Morocco. In addition, the Moroccan Kingdom was one of the first countries to recognize the US in the 18th century and to send diplomatic missions all around the western world. Morocco is also Arab, Berber, Roman, Jewish, Mediterranean, Sahraouian etc. My country’s history rich of interaction and openness ended in giving birth to a typical language called Darija.

In reality a variety of different languages are spoken in my country. In the northern Rif people speak Tarifit which is a Berber Saxon dialect formed from the interaction between Saxon Viking settlers and other Berber tribes. In the Atlas people speak Tamazigt, which is the typical dialect of the original inhabitants of the Maghreb, which are supposed to be Gaulois according to the French anthropologists. People in the Souss Valley, southern Morocco speak Tachelhit. Whereas, the Sahraoui people speak Hassaniya, Andalucians in Fes, Rabat or Tetouan speak Andalucían Arabic, and educated people would rather speak French and English. In the midway between all these varieties of dialects and languages, Darija is the language that unites all this diversity in one tongue. It’s the language of interaction between people, of trade, and the one you will hear in the street.

I remember in Journalism School, in Arabic classes that I never wanted to speak classical Arabic. My teacher would get angry and remind me that it’s our language, and I would always answer in Darija “Arabic it’s not my language, I would like to write in the newspaper in Darija and present the news on TV in Darija. Saying our language is Arabic is killing identity with hypocrisy”. Nothing changed since then, Arabic is still the language of the Kingdom according to its constitution, TV, newspapers, Education Manuals, political speeches are still in classical Arabic. If it’s a matter of religion, I really don’t think we’ll be less Muslim if we admit that our language is Darija. Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia are strong Muslim countries though they don’t speak Arabic! If it’s about our ties with the Middle East, a Moroccan would still look ridiculous trying to speak classical Arabic with a band of Middle Easterns confident about their dialects.

Two Months ago, I was with one of my Egyptian friends in Cairo, and I was answering him in English whenever he was asking a question, until he said “Why you Moroccans want to destroy the Arabic Unity Nasser built. We are one nation and Arabic is the thing that unites us”. I fixed him right in the eyes and said in proper Darija “Sir goul l Nasser dialek désolé 3lawed ana tanhdar bi Darija”, translation “Go tell your Nasser sorry, because I speak Darija”.