Nipped in the bud: Hindu editorial on baby trafficking

Criminal activity is primarily driven by a combination of socio-economic factors: poverty on the one hand, wealth on the other, and unmet needs or desires. The recent inter-state baby trafficking busted by the Telangana police needs to be seen in this light. While news of baby trafficking makes headlines from time to time, the revelation of this network has revealed frightening levels of underground operation, spanning multiple states. An inter-state gang smuggled children from Delhi and Pune and sold them to prospective parents in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Over the past year, up to 11 people have been arrested for trafficking 50 babies. According to initial reports, the gang had 'purchased' babies from two people in Delhi and one person in Pune, trafficked them to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and sold them to the highest bidder among childless couples in these Southern States. It is learned that the rate for a baby could be between ₹1.80 lakh and ₹5.50 lakh, which would fetch brokers between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh in commission. Three women from the gang had apparently been jailed earlier for the same offence.

Further investigation will reveal how the babies were obtained, but this is not the first time such rackets have been busted. There is no reason to believe that the reasons are different: the poverty of biological parents in many cases, pushing them to sell their newborns for a pittance, and the trafficking of newborns from public hospitals where security is lax. On the other end of the spectrum are couples who want to have children and are impatient with having to wait a long time to legally adopt a baby. The current waiting time to adopt a child under the age of two can be between two and four years. While a lengthy process is put in place to ensure that the best interests of the child are served, the non-availability of babies for adoption has disrupted the field, allowing demand to seek supply routes by will. or by crook. In this particular situation, getting a gang together might, at best, be a short-term measure. Children are not commodities that can be purchased at a high price on the open market when supply is low. The government must do several things at once to ensure that such incidents do not happen again: implement effective poverty reduction programs; employment opportunities for young people; educate biological and adoptive parents about adoption programs; remove unnecessary bureaucratic processes during adoption and ensure effective policing to nip such plots in the bud.