Safe care and adoption for Indian Babies

We are happy to report that for now the COVID situation in India has stabilized after the devastating second wave earlier this year. While there are still cases being reported, and some restrictions remain in place many are being vaccinated and the pressure on the health systems is manageable. As we are sure it is for you, life has no means returned to normal and we remain concerned about a third wave, the improved situation is a welcome relief to all. We are so grateful for your support, it makes a world of difference when crises like these hit, thank you.

Children belong with their families and, wherever possible, Snehalaya is fully committed to keeping families together. During COVID many families have been extremely vulnerable and have struggled to keep food on the table and also care for and protect their children. We have been reaching out to as many communities as we can to provide support to help families stay safe, healthy and together. When, in March 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic, the government shut down the whole of India there was little time to prepare, especially for low income workers who depend on daily work to feed their families. As many were also isolating in cramped conditions, there were serious impacts on mental health and stress leading to increased quarrels between husband and wife, domestic violence and pressure to reduce the burdens they were facing through child marriages and abandoning or relinquishing their babies.

One family living in a rural village close to Ahmednagar felt all of this. The father with the responsibility of a wife and two children to support shares his story: “I used to work every day and support my family on whatever I could find. One day a storm called lockdown hit us. Of course, this storm, released by the government, hit the whole country but no one seemed to have considered the poor, blind, disabled, orphans and children. Many lost their jobs during the storm and the means of making any money were restricted.” For this family there was no work or income which essentially meant no food. The huge question of how they were going to survive was causing arguments which was affecting the children, including their six-month-old girl.

The father desperately wanted to take care of his daughter but with his own mental condition deteriorating due to the added stress of lockdown restrictions he felt he had no option but to legally hand her over to Snehalaya, where he knew she would be safe with plenty of food, medical and other support. Our Adoption Center Team realised that the mother and father loved their children and had made their heart-breaking decision to put their baby up for adoption based on the helplessness they felt due to the COVID situation. Thinking only of the best interests of their child, who they felt unable to care for at the time, they had made a hasty decision to secure them a better future.

Realising their decision was in response to a temporary crisis, we asked the family to speak with our counselling team. They were able to mediate the arguing couple and help the father through his depression to restore his mental balance. Once the couple was stable and back on track we were able to reverse their decision and legally hand the girl back to her parents. Today, thanks to Snehankur, the family’s life is back to normal and they are a secure happy unit once more. We continue to keep in touch with them and are ready to support them again whenever they need.

Without our support there is no knowing what would have happened to this baby girl and her family and we thank you for your support in ensuring we can be there for this and many more families like them.

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The second wave of COVID is devastating India. Ahmednagar District, where Snehalaya operates is one of the worst hit with no beds, oxygen or medicines available to our largely rural population of nearly 5 million. High unemployment, a severe lack of statutory healthcare, drought, poverty and a large transient population has historically perpetuated many issues for low-income families, most of whom earn their living from agriculture, daily wage or migrant work. Since March 2021 a flood of positive cases has rendered the current medical facilities throughout the district overburdened and insufficient. There has been a steep rise in the number of Corona positive patients in the district and at the start of April, Times of India reported it was in the top ten worst affected districts in India with over 1,000 new cases a day and this has now risen to over 3,000 new cases each day.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the number of abandoned children has risen sharply, at the same time, the adoption process has been disrupted by lockdown, being halted from March to September 2020 and again since April 2021 for the foreseeable future. As a result, in 2020, our adoption center was running at 20% over capacity. Fortunately, we were able to resume adoptions between the first and second wave completing the process to complete 46 adoptions but with the current devastating situation we are again already exceeding our capacity with 34 babies in our 30-bed center.

With lockdowns and the pressure of managing COVID cases dominating healthcare, most maternity facilities are closed and women and girls are forced to deliver their babies at home. They are also unable to access essential pre and post-natal services. In normal circumstances women and girls with unwanted pregnancies are referred to our center by maternity professionals where we can ensure they receive the support to safely deliver and where necessary relinquish their babies. We also rely on our large network of community volunteers to identify other potential abandoned babies within their communities. With more girls and women giving birth behind the closed doors of lockdown, we are finding it much harder to find those in need of our services.

We remain worried about pregnancies being conducted at home without adequate support both for delivery and the care of the newborns. These include women and girls like Radha’s mother who are finding it much harder to access our support. She is HIV positive but thanks to our HIV hospital we were able to treat her during her pregnancy so that her baby, Radha, was born HIV negative. She was also born with tuberculosis but we were able to treat that too and she made a full recovery and has now been adopted by foreign parents.

These kinds of complications are already common in ‘normal’ situations and the pandemic is only adding to the problem as we see an increase in the number of home-birth complications resulting in deformities and minor to serious health conditions. With most hospitals beds reserved for COVID patients we are providing medical and emotional support to as many as we can through our network of paediatricians and maternity hospitals able to manage out-patients. Without you and our dedicated teams of volunteers and staff who conduct regular nightly patrols and socially-distanced outreach work, many more babies like Radha simply would not make it.

We are incredibly grateful for your support that allows us to continue to care for the mothers and babies already in our center and the many more who will be admitted in the coming months and post-lockdown.

Please do stay safe.

Links:

• Visit our website
• Read more about our current response to COVID
• Read more about our response to COVID & impact in 2020