MM: Wary child welfare body reins in 'greedy' uncle: July 30, 2008 | Adoption : News Articles

Wary child welfare body reins in ‘greedy’ uncle

Child Welfare Committee gets suspicious when man who wants to put his niece in orphanage changes his mind when issue of her property crops up; orders him to seek her guardianship in court ........BAPU DEEDWANIA

Aman who wanted to commit his five-yearold orphaned niece to an institution, and then suddenly changed his mind when the issue of her property cropped up, has been asked to seek the child’s guardianship in the Bombay High Court.

Although the child has been sent back to the uncle after he filed the petition for her guardianship in the HC, the Child Welfare Committee, Mumbai, has said it is keeping an eye on the child.

Prakash Monde, 47, an employee with the public works department and a resident of the servant’s quarters in Malabar Hill wanted to commit his niece Shraddha to an orphanage.

After the death of his younger brother Mohan four years ago followed by his sisterin-law Manisha, Prakash was forced to take Shraddha in. But with a wife and four children of his own, his self-contained tenement in Malabar Hill proved too small. He then decided to commit her to an orphanage.

“He approached us in the last week of June. We understood his situation and financial difficulties and agreed to take Shraddha in. We were working on deciding an orphanage for her,” said a member of the CWC.

Dr Shaila Mhatre, CWC chairperson, said that on one of Monde’s visits to meet Shraddha, he mentioned about a room the child’s father owned. “We then asked him to submit the property papers, as legally the property belongs to Shraddha. After that Monde made a request to take Shraddha back. This was a typical situation for us. Normally, even we prefer that a child goes back to the family, but here we were apprehensive about his motives,” said Dr Mhatre.

However, when questioned about it, Monde and his wife claim that the only reason they wanted to take Shraddha back was that on every visit to the home: they found Shraddha crying. “She wanted to be with us. She would cry so much that we decided against keeping her there. We had decided to send her to an orphanage due to financial difficulties, but we could not bear to see her like that. We are doing as the CWC has directed,” said Monde.

The CWC at a meeting of all its members decided to work out a solution to this problem. “A welfare home or an orphanage can be no substitute for a home. Even we wanted Shraddha to be united with her family but at the same time we had to safeguard her interests in the property,” said Mhatre.

“Since the request for taking her back came after we asked for the property papers, we were worried. But once guardianship is granted, Monde will act as a custodian of both her and the property. That in our opinion was the best solution to this problem,” she said.

Five-year-old Shraddha (centre) with her uncle Prakash Monde (far left) and his family

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