A woman from West Kazakhstan is suspected of selling her children. 32-year mother is under investigation. Law-enforcers revealed that she turned her own self into a commercial parturition mechanism. First, she sold a boy, born in 2021. In a year, she sold his brother. Now, she is facing potential detention for the period of 5 to 9 years with the confiscation of property. 

The above is not a singular offence revealed in recent years. “Commercial mothers” sell not only newly bairns – they sell adolescents and those under 7. Given advertisements placed in various dodgy web-sites, as well as based on information from law-enforcers who caught those mothers hot-handed, the mothers are the ones, who deal with the “marketing process”. That does not surprise, because in the majority of traditional families, mothers are the ones who assume responsibility for the offspring. That is the merciless Kazakh reality, especially in provinces.

There is no serious research of how partners, spouses and relatives may influence the final decision to sell-out a child, but having looked into particular life situations, an observer will acquire a clear picture, that, as a rule, such women face and handle discussed situations on their own. 

Just Like Hotdogs

Failed socialization and corresponding lifestyle, as well as moral immaturity and financial insolvency making a girl not ready to be a mother – those are the characteristics that form the situations, in the course of which women sell their children.

In the first case, women, as a rule, abuse alcohol and-or drugs, or at all are women with low moral values.  For them, to sell a child is a means to buy a new dose of drugs or to have their morning hair of the dog.  In many cases, they do not control themselves.

We must admit, that not always do those sold children find themselves in truly loving hands. Sometimes, they find themselves in the hands of criminals or organizers of child prostitution.  In situations like that, nobody will want to seek arguments justifying their mothers.

There are situations, when women show weakness and fall under the influence of their relatives. That is particularly characteristic of single mothers. Since childhood, such girls are indoctrinated to be morally impeccable. Their parents “thumb” for those girls not to commit things that would disgrace themselves and their families. When the time comes for those girls to fall in love, things develop in a totally different way.  Girl report their pregnancy to their parents and what do they hear – “Don’t even think about coming home with that child”. Many of them choose to sell their children to return back to their “impeccable” life. But we all know, that after that their life shall never be like it was. 

There are other situations. Girls either don’t have parents and relatives, or they abandon their parents. With no help to rely on, those mothers try to sell their children to make some money and thus acquire a new start.  Because the problem of childlessness exists in many families in Kazakhstan, buyers do not keep those girls waiting. 

Human rights activists explain that collective stereotypes only facilitate the child trade. In our modern world, we still have a prejudice that future mothers must conceive and give birth on their own. Of course, you can adopt a child or lie to your relatives about how that child appeared in your life. But, again, the discussed sphere is saturated with all sorts of complicating factors …

What Will People Say?

Relatives with their attitudes, or inability to know and accept own biology very often push Kazakh families towards committing crimes. Those are the circumstances that most often create the commercial demand.  Not all those willing to become parents want to deal with bureaucracies, which are mandatory for child adoption. In many situations, all that paper hassle does not necessarily bring the desired effect. 

In our previous publications, we discussed complicated child-adoption procedures in Kazakhstan. In our country, the government funds orphanages in accordance to the «per capita” principle. Heads of orphanages are not motivated to lose the funding, because with each adopted child, amounts of those funds tend to reduce. That is why, it appears simpler to adopt a child bypassing the law. 

Reducing the governmental funding and the guardian family programs could unload the orphanage system and prevent the flawed practices.

That problem may be solved if our state introduced an alternative method for abandoning of parental duties and rights – the so-called baby-boxes. The advantage of that practice is in the fact that those baby-boxes are installed in maternity centers and hospitals. According to that practice, if a woman reconsiders, she may come and claim her child back, after taking a DNA verification test. Baby-boxes could prevent the selling of children. And they could prevent the killing of children. Some women prefer to kill their children for the sake of concealing pregnancy or not acquiring the reputation of the mother abandoning her children. 

Give Them Education, Not Porn

Some public activists believe that women in trouble do need help, but not always financial problems constitute the main motive behind willingness to sell a child. Some Kazakh support endowments report that in some cases women come seeking for help with several children. Those are the mothers, who shall never consider selling their children or giving them away to orphanages – despite pressure from relatives and partners and notwithstanding financial insolvency.

Psychologists think that some cases indicate at lack of human values and some elementary knowledge. When they face hardships, some girls “trip out”. Some of them are not aware of existence and availability of organizations that may help. 

Sexual enlightenment could, as well, help to solve the child-trade and the child-murder problems.  Idealistically, it could be done in secondary schools. The average age, at which juveniles experience sex in Kazakhstan is 15. If we do not warn our juveniles about all nuances in advance, it will too late. Pornography, as a portal into the world of adult experience, does not educate children about contraceptives. Children treat pornography as a practical guidance. 

Only once we resolve all above problems, we will reduce crime against children.