VIJAYAWADA: People who are coming forward to adopt children in Krishna district are preferring girls to boys. According to records of the Child Protection Cell, Krishna district, the girl child adoptions are almost double the number of boys.
Since 2007, a total of 223 adoptions have taken place in Krishna district, of which 152 are girls and 71 are boys. Four inter-country adoptions and three special child adoptions have also taken place during the period.
Though the district stood first in child adoptions across the State, foster care facility is not available in the district. At present, the district has two Sishu Gruhas, one in Buddhavaram and other in Machilipatnam, which was started in 2013.
The children who have been abandoned by their parents would be sent to these Sishu Gruhas.
According to the records of Child Protection Cell, Krishna district, the number of girls who have found a family is nearly double the number of boys who were adopted in the last 10 years. The key reason is availability of girl children. The number of girl children at the child protection centres is more than that of the boys.
The second reason is parents prefer girls to boys as the girl children easily mingle with them. And over 10-15 couples have come forward to exchange the boy they had adopted with a girl child.
Interestingly, almost 8-9 children were adopted by single mothers in the last 10 years.
“It’s true that more girls are abandoned than boys in our country, but a positive trend is that most of the parents are choosing girls for adoption. Generally, majority of couples coming for adoption seek girl child in the application,” Krishna Kumari, project director of child adoption, Krishna district.
“The State government is handling the adoption process very carefully and will check each and every detail of the person approaching us for adoption,” she said.
Adoptions decline
sharply since 2014
However, adoptions saw a decreasing trend in the district from 2014. In 2014, 21 adoptions took place in the district and in 2015, the number of adoptions has fallen to 17 and in 2016, the number is just 13. In 2016, not a single adoption has taken place at the Sishu Gruha of Machilipatnam.
Lengthy procedure and long wait are said to be the reasons behind the decreasing trend in adoptions. Any person who wants to adopt a child must register on the website of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). After filling the application form, the person has to upload a list of documents including family picture, marriage certificate, date of birth proof, medical tests reports, income and address proof within 20 days of registration.
After uploading certificates, there will be a house visit by officials and after that the person has to pay `6,000 to the project director. After the approval, the person would be given an ID for his turn to choose the child in the given option of five. The entire process takes over an year and some times, even more.At present, the district has got over 90 applications for child adoptions, which are under process.
Syamala (name changed) says the adoption process is lengthy and time consuming. “I am a single mother and I have applied for adopting a child in 2016. Till date, I didn’t reach even half of the procedure.” “In order to promote the adoption system, we have kept the foster care on hold. Only Child Welfare Committee is looking after the foster care system in the State. Now a days, people have good awareness on the adoption process,” said Johnson, Child Protection Department officer.