Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh: The case of eight -year-old orphan Rajitha, who was given away in illegal adoption and subsequently brought to a hospital in an extremely malnourished state, has raised questions about the process of adoption in Andhra Pradesh.
While those responsible for her state have not been arrested yet, the focus for the moment is on her well-being.
It must have taken all that she had for Rajitha to come out and tell the world her story of how she as an orphan was given away to work as domestic labour and was beaten up and abused. She seemed to have no more energy for words.
"Actually the weight of the child is 10 kg. Expected weight is 20 kg, which means it is 50 per cent less. That is grade 4 malnutrition,'' says a doctor of the district hospital where she's being currently treated.
The case however has served as a wake-up call for the child welfare department to plug the loopholes in the adoption process.
"Legal adoption has to be given by women and child welfare department and it is the only licensing authority in Andhra Pradesh. If anyone has to take a child in adoption, they have to go through the department,'' says Usha Rani, the director of Women and Child Welfare Department of the state.
The police have registered cases against the men who subjected her to abuse but no arrests have taken place so far.
Rajitha makes a lonely picture as she sleeps on the hospital bed. She is in fact all alone in this world with no one to worry or care about her story of deprivation and abuse and no one to ask any questions about the violation of her basic human rights as a child.