Single dad adopts child with Down's syndrome, shares story

Aditya and his son, Avnish. Pic/Instagram

A heartening story of Aditya Tiwari and his son Avnish has gone viral on social media. The story talks about a single parent, Aditya who adopted Avnish who is a child suffering from Down's Syndrome. In the process, he also exposed an orphanage for its malpractices.

Tiwari had met Avnish five years ago at an orphanage when the latter was only five months old. "No one was paying any attention to him. I couldn't help myself, so I went and picked him up - he laughed, and we just clicked," he says.

Tiwari added that when he asked about the kids to the warden, he said that all the other children would get adopted except for Avnish since he was 'Paagal' and would die in a few years anyway. He asked if the orphanage would let him adopt Avnish but they laughed and told him that a bachelor below 30 years of age had no right to adopt.

Tiwari continued to visit Avinash and did not give up, even when the orphanage moved to Bhopal. He also researched adoption laws in the country and wrote to ministers for help.

"I even got in touch with the child welfare council, but they said that they didn't have any record on Avnish… I realised that there were many more undocumented kids at the orphanage. Something was fishy - a lot of these kids were disappearing and I suspected they were victims of child trafficking and organ selling," he says.

He approached the police and filed petitions to seek the truth of the matter. However, with a response from the Welfare Minister, things became better. "That expedited everything, and soon that orphanage was exposed and banned," he says.

After 11 months of efforts, Tiwari was given Avnish's custody. "The day Avnish came home, it was like sunshine walked into my life," he says.

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