Hardlook at Delhi’s adoption centre: ‘When they start recognising us, they are shifted or adopted…’

In years of nurturing children, there have been moments of joy and pain of parting. One child in particular stole her heart.

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“I love each child whether it is a girl or a boy. There was a child I loved the most. I cried when he left. He was adopted by a couple from abroad when he turned 2 years old. I miss him a lot sometimes. Ab to uska naam bhi badal gaya hoga (his name must have been changed now),” she says.

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Maya had named him Sumekh when he arrived at Udayan. “He was left in the cradle outside the gate. He weighed just 900 grams and was wrapped in a thin blanket. I fed him milk with spoon. In a few months, he started crawling,” says Maya, and adds he was very active and attractive and anyone who visited Udayan engaged with him.

“I am mother of three children and two of them are married. I also have a 3-year-old grandson. My whole day is spent around children,” says Maya, whose duty hours are between 8 am and 2 pm.

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“We don’t work here as caretakers. 

We have to perform our duties as mothers. The children arrive here mostly when they are barely days or a few months old. But when they start recognising us, they are shifted to other centres or adopted,” Maya’s voice trails off.