Journalism of Courage
Forty one-year-old Sophia Minton was the first child to be adopted from Shreevatsa,the child care centre started by the Society of Friends of Sassoon General Hospital (SOFOSH). She was adopted from the centre at a very young age by a Swedish couple.
On Tuesday,she,along with her adoptive mother Eva,husband Bjorn a weightlifter who qualified for the Olympics and her children (10-year-old Mira and eight-year-old Anand) visited Shreevatsa ahead of Diwali.
I have come several times to Pune but this is the first time that I have brought my children along, Sophia,also known as Sujata at the centre,said. I want my children to understand what adoption is all about. I think they find it hard to understand why my biological mother gave me up, says Sophia,while visiting the centre on Tuesday.
I have tried to explain to them that perhaps my biological mother did not have the means to fend for me and I would get better opportunities if somebody adopted me, Sophia said.
Sophia explains that she never felt discriminated against for being adopted. I feel
sad that there is such a negative focus on what happens to
Indian children after they are adopted by couples from abroad. My Swedish parents had their own child but I never felt like an outsider. At school also,there was another child who was adopted but we grew up as normal Swedish children, Sophia said.
A former paediatric nurse at Lund Hospital at Sweden,Sophia has taken care of children with cancer. It was a moving experience but I had to take another job at a school after my children were born, Sophia said.
Deepika Maharaj Singh,the vice-chairperson of SOFOSH,points out that children born to parents who have been adopted face some anxiety.
They often wonder why their parents were never brought up by their biological parents. While Sophia has visited the centre several times,this is the first time she has brought her children along,Singh said.
According to SOFOSH statistics,a total of 2,867 children have been adopted from 1974 till today,of which 1,538 were girls and 1,329 boys. There were a total of 656 inter-country adoptions,SOFOSH officials said.
