Awareness of Safe Surrender Needed to Address Abandonment of Kids: Activists

Sharmila Ganesan Ram - The Times of India

That India abandoned 6,459 babies between 2016 and 2020 does not surprise Smriti Gupta, a proud mother to two adopted children. "Likely, the actual number of abandonments is much higher," says Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Where are India's Children (WAIC), a Pune-based non-profit that is trying to create awareness about the invisible deserted and orphaned kids who never make it into India's legal adoption pool chiefly because vulnerable parents and guardians do not know that they can safely surrender the child at adoption agencies instead of leaving them at shelters.