after put on priority listNew Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) About 70 per cent of singlewomen above 40 years of age wanting to adopt a child havebenefited in the last six months after the government put themon a priority list for adoption, according to an official.
A committee set up under the Ministry of Women and ChildDevelopment (WCD) had decided to give single women, who areabove 40 years and financially stable, ante date seniority ofsix months once they register for adoption.
Prospective parents have to wait for at least up to ayear to get the child of their preference. The government'sdecision to give single women above 40 years a seniority ofsix months, therefore, effectively reduces the waiting periodfor them by half.
There were a total 817 single women registered with thenodal adoption body, Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA),last year. Of these, 457 were above 40 years, according to anRTI response sought by PTI.
Since the government announced its decision in July lastyear to help single women to adopt, 314 single women above 40years have been able to bring home a child, WCD SecretaryRakesh Shrivastava said.
It is feared that the preference for single women couldbe detrimental for other parents and result in longer waitingperiod for them.
In order to address those concerns, CEO CARA Lt ColDeepak Kumar said they will be reviewing the process in March.
There are approximately 18,000 parents registered withCARA, while the number of children in the government'sadoption pool is less than 1,800.
"We saw a large number of single women in the last fewmonths because we had a huge backlog of them. In another threemonths we will be able to assess better if this scheme isproving disadvantageous to other sets of parents or not andtake corrective measures," Kumar said. PTI JC ASKASK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.