A Belgian woman's search of her lost roots in India

The Hindu

24-07-2025

'I want to tell my children in future about my life story and my journey to the country where my adopted parents raised me with much love and care,' were the words of Aruna Leruitte, aged around 30, adopted by a couple in Belgium in 1994 from an adoption agency. Ms. Leruitte, now a Belgian citizen, has come to India in search of her biological parents.
During an interaction with press here on Thursday, Anjali Pawar, Director of Adoptee Rights Council, representing Ms. Leruitte, said to trace origin of Ms. Leruitte, suspected to be a victim of an international adoption racket, they perused her adoption documents and certificates which approved her adoption to a couple in Belgium in around 1994.
'According to official paperwork from her adoption, Ms. Leruitte was born in 1992 and arrived at the Malaysian Social Service institution in 1993. As per the records, her mother's name was Sakunthala and the address was Konar Street, Palayam Village, Madurai,' she added.
Though Ms. Pawar's team went in search of her mother or person who could identify Ms. Leruitte's mother in several areas, all their efforts went in vain, as they did not find anyone who could identify either the mother or the child.
'One major reason for that is that the address provided in the adoption documents was not correct. If the child was trafficked from another area or district, and the address was wrongly recorded,' she noted.
She said despite extensive efforts, they had been unable to locate the address or verify its existence, which fuelled suspicion about the authenticity of the documents.
A major scandal that broke out in 2005 in connection with the Malaysian Social Service compounded their doubts about the illegality of the adoption.
'An investigation into the adoption racket of the Malaysian Social Service revealed that several children sent abroad for adoption through the organisation had been kidnapped. Also, in many cases, the paper works were fabricated to facilitate illegal adoptions,' Ms. Pawar recalled.
Further, on reading the inconsistencies in Ms. Leruitte's (then Aruna) records, she suspected that there was a strong possibility that she was one of those kidnapped children, taken from her family with consent, when she was one and a half years old, in 1993.
She stressed that a girl's pursuit in search for her parents was not just a historical issue, but a human story of potential loss, identity and reunion.
Though it was a tough task for Ms. Leruitte to embark on an emotional journey to find her roots, it was her fundamental right to know her roots and her biological parents, she said.
Ms. Leruitte, who works as a secretary in a garage and leads a very ordinary life along with her father and brother, adopted from Bengaluru, said she was desperate to know about her past and where her life began.
Ms. Pawar and Bimala Chandrasekar, Director of EKTA Resource Centre for Women, who are into finding the lost family, welcomed any hint or information about the family or the origin of Ms. Leruitee.
Also, anyone in search of their children who went missing around 1992 at approximately at the age of one and a half years, could contact them through [e-mail] or 9822206485 and 7639353494.
They also said the informants' identity would be kept confidential.