CHENNAI: That the waiting list of parents wanting to adopt is growing longer in Tamil Nadu is reason enough to cheer but the real reason is that baby girls are in demand much more than boys for adoption.
While the demand has been going up, the number of children coming in through the cradle baby scheme has reduced to a trickle.
Speaking at the release of compendium of guidelines on adoption, Andal Damodharan of Indian Council For Child Welfare (ICCW) said, “In every adoption agency in Tamil Nadu, the waiting list is growing longer. This shows openness in their mindset, and an increasing number of middle class people are queuing up for adoption. The best thing we hear from them is they want girl babies, saying it is only the girls who are going to take care of the parents in old age.”
After registration, one has to wait for least a year to get a baby in hand. Lurdhu Mary, social worker from PEACE, an adoption agency from Coimbatore, said, “The demand for girl babies is more these days, with people preferring a girl to a boy, saying that girls are more loyal to their parents than the boys.”
Vinodhini, a social worker from Grace Kenneth Foundation in Madurai said, “There is definitely a steep increase in people coming to us for adoption. We have a waiting list of 150 people in our agency. We see people from all walks of life willing to adopt.”
The interesting trend is that even parents who already have a child want to adopt, Vinodhini said. She added that the adoption centre’s first preference was those couples who do not have a child.
Another reason cited for the increase in the number of adoptive parents has been the crackdown on illegal adoption.
Raja Paneerselvam from the Society for Rural Development Promotion Services in Vellore said, “The expose on illegal adoption, is forcing educated people to go in for legal adoptions.” Chitra from Bala Mandir in Chennai said, “ We are not taking in any more registrations for adoption. Rather we are referring to other agencies because we have no babies to give.”
Vasanthi from Christ Faith Home, in Chennai said, “ Two years back we used to get around 20 babies a month, now we get only two babies once in two months.” Where do the babies go? Nobody seems to have an answer.