04/12/2023
"I had gone to Jyoti Niwas orphanage in Indore to distribute sweets on my father’s birthday. There, I saw Avnish, the only baby who had not been adopted.
The nuns told me he was a ‘mental child’. This is the broad term we club special children under. Avnish has Down’s Syndrome, two holes in his heart, weak eyesight and because of a problem with his knees, may never walk.
His chances of adoption within India were slim; they would try a foreign adoption for him, since non-Indians are less discriminative against special children.
But when I carried that lovely six-month-old boy in my arms, he laughed. We made an instant connection.
I wanted to adopt him, but the warden told me I was too young. Besides, I was unmarried; that was another reason why the adoption laws did not favour me.
But I was not ready to give up. People heard about my effort and Madhya Pradesh's welfare minister lent his support.
I was finally able to adopt Avnish in January 2016. He was two years old then. I was 26 years old and a bachelor; I got married one year later.
People wondered whether I was incapable of fathering children, or had this child outside wedlock and was compelled to adopt him. They just didn’t understand why I would want to be a single father.
But Avnish and I, we learnt to understand each other. I plugged into a national network of parents with Down’s Syndrome children, and educated myself on his needs.
Today, one of the holes in his heart has healed. He recently also learnt to walk without support."
