By Utkarsh Anand, New Delhi

The CARA statistics showed that of 30,477 prospective parents registered with the central nodal agency for adoption, 28,779 (94%) are heterosexual couples.

The back story to India’s tedious and interminable adoption process can clearly be seen in the statistics with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA): While more than 30,000 prospective parents are currently waiting to adopt, less than 7% the number of children — 2131— are legally free for adoption. Around two-third of them are children with special needs, and it takes three years for an adoption process to complete.

According to the statistics placed by the Union government before the Supreme Court during the hearing of a bunch of petitions demanding legal recognition for same-sex marriages, around half the number of children legally free for adoption are special needs children, with the highest number of them falling in 14-18 age group.

The data, as on April 28, was adduced before a constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud by additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati as the law officer rose to oppose a demand of the same-sex couples to have the right to adopt a child as unions. The bench also included justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha.

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Dr Sangeeta along with her husband Dr Waliul Islam were accused of abusing their adopted minor daughter. Meanwhile, Dr Sangeeta was on the run and hiding in a house at Umsning in Meghalaya’s Ribhoi. However, the police were able to track her down and brought her to the Paltam Bazar police station at night.

Dr. Waliul, Sangeeta's husband, is being held by the police for five days in connection with the case. In the meantime, Lakshmi Rai, the caretaker who was also allegedly involved in the case, has been taken into custody by the court.

The doctor couple duo are accused for their alleged involvement in a child abuse case and the matter came to light after child rights activist Miguel Das Queah took to social media and informed about the incident.

SURAT: A girl abandoned by her biological parents got a new lease of life when a childless couple from the city adopted her when she was three months old.

But the girl, who is now nearing 14 and studying in Class 9, became a victim of sexual abuse with the perpetrators being her adoptive father, his younger brother, and his three nephews. The ordeal of the teenager, which began in 2021, was exposed by her adoptive mother who witnessed her husband abusing her on Friday.

She rescued the girl and wnet to Adajan police station to lodge a complaint against her 46-year-old husband, his younger brother (41), his elder brother's son (24), younger brother's son (22), and sister-in-law's 16-year-old son.

Police arrested four people including adoptive father and his brother and two nephews.

It all began in 2021, when the accused took her to the first floor of their house and raped her. She was subjected to sexual abuse multiple times by the five accused. The survivor told police that she did not complain earlier as her father and others threatened to kill her or thrash her.

GUWAHATI: An FIR was filed against Walliul Islam and Sangita Dutta on the grounds of suspected child abuse of their adopted 3-year-old daughter at the Paltan Bazaar police station on May 5.

The complainant alleged that the couple tortured and harassed their adopted daughter by tying her up on the terrace of the building in the intense heat purposefully without food or water, with an alleged intent to cause harm or even kill the child.

This has come across as gruesome and inhumane and has professed the cause that such behaviour may lead to the death of the child from Hyperthermia.

Sources also state that the neighbourhood had reported similar events but to no avail. 

The child has also been allegedly reported to have been seen with bruises on the body, demarcating signs of alleged physical abuse by the foster parents.

By KPLC Digital Team

Jeff Davis Parish, LA (KPLC) - The parents of a 12-year-old boy who died of malnutrition last year have been indicted for second-degree murder.

Brogan Nash Duhon died in October 2022 at a children’s hospital in Baton Rouge. A coroner’s report indicated the cause of his death as complications from malnutrition and deemed the death a homicide. Brogan was 42 inches tall and weighed 28 pounds when he died.

His parents, Adam Duhon and Jennifer Ann Duhon, were arrested on murder charges in February 2023 and were formally indicted this week.

A Damascus woman is accused of abusing her six adopted children for years. Lora Loethen is facing child abuse, assault, neglect, and several other charges. She is currently being held without bond.

According to court documents, an investigation into Loethen began in March after one of her adopted kids told another adult that she did not feel safe going home. The child then told police Loethen was beating her since she came to the U.S. seven years ago.

Court documents also reveal Montgomery County Police were dispatched for incidents involving the family more than 65 times and police wrote more than 30 reports between August 2021 and March 2023. Most of those calls involved children attempting to run away, which in 2021, one child told police, “Loethen is verbally and physically abusive which is why he runs away.”

In May of 2022, two children also went to the Damascus Fire Station and told medics they had barely eaten or drank in four days. One of the children then told police Loethen has hit, thrown her down the stairs, kicked, shoved, slapped, and spat on her.

Although MCP received reports of assault, there wasn’t probable cause to make an arrest. Child Protective Services are tasked with calling to remove children from an unsafe environment. MyMCM reached out to CPS and did not hear back as of this writing.

By Josh Rosenthal

WASHINGTON - A Damascus woman is accused of abusing her six adopted children in a case that stretches back years.

Lora Loethen now faces more than a dozen charges, including child abuse, assault, and neglect.

"It’s a big deal. It’s horrible," said Debbie Feinstein, who’s the chief of the Special Victim’s Unit for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. "Hopefully we’re going to bring this woman to justice."

In court documents, prosecutors said an investigation into Loethen began in March, when one of Loethen’s kids told a friend’s parent that "she did not feel safe going home." The child would later tell police "that Loethen has been abusing and beating her since she came into this country approximately seven years ago."

by James Brierton

Van Erick Custodio, a Belmont man convicted of killing a 6-week-old boy he was in the process of adopting, accepted a plea deal in court Tuesday.

Custodio will spend between 23 and 28 years in prison for the April death of Lucas Birchim. He was charged with felony child abuse for the severe bodily injury he caused the boy. He was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.

On April 1, first responders went to the home on Prancer Lane. They found Birchim suffering from cardiac arrest. Birchim was taken to the hospital where he later succumbed to injuries caused by the abuse.

Custodio was arrested on April 11 in York County, South Carolina and was extradited back to Gaston County, where he had been held on a half-a-million-dollar bond. 

The owner was granted a new license in March, five years after her first license was revoked.

By Paighten Harkins

A Utah adoption agency owner who lost her license in 2018 after state regulators discovered “repeated and chronic violations” of state law — including some a judge called “potentially criminal” — has received a new license and opened another adoption agency.

Some parents who adopted children through Denise Garza’s previous agency, Heart and Soul Adoptions, are concerned that state regulators gave Garza a second chance, and feel that doing so compromises the safety of birth mothers, adoptive parents and the children being placed with new families.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the licensing office that regulates child-placing agencies, said in an emailed statement that, “The DHHS Office of Licensing reviewed the new application along with the applicant’s past/historical record with the agency including past violations.”

By Amanda Gokee

CONCORD, N.H. —The 8-by-8 basement room where Olivia Atkocaitis was confined for much of her childhood only got worse as time went on. She watched as curtains over one of the basement windows were replaced with chicken wire, the bed she slept on removed as a punishment, the door locked from the outside and alarmed.

For Olivia, it felt like captivity. Her older brother Kaleb called it a jail cell. And those with the power to free her did not, both siblings said.

It started in 2004, when Olivia was adopted from China as a 14-month-old by a New Boston family that already had three biological children: Nick, Kaleb, and Rose. Kaleb, who was 8 at the time, said the adoption was confusing to the kids because their parents were already allegedly abusing them.

In 2011, when he was 15, Kaleb reached a breaking point. After a fight with his father, he ran away from home and reported his parents to New Boston police for abusing him and Olivia. In a 23-page interview with police, he told them Olivia was locked in a basement room for “a few hours to weeks” and that their mom had hit Olivia in the face “with closed and open fists” and had also pushed her down the stairs.