HYDERABAD: Fatalities in the second wave of the Covid pandemic have unfortunately left several children orphaned. Lately, adoption posts for many of these children have been doing the rounds of social media. Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) Department Commissioner D Divya has, however, cautioned people against rushing for adoption through these mediums. She urged people to follow the due procedure as adoptions without permission from agencies concerned is an illegal act.
One such post on a social media platform reads, “Kids aged 2 years old baby girl and 2 months a baby boy whose parents have passed away due to covid. These kids need a home. If anyone close to you is looking for an adoption please contact me. Kindly share it as much as possible [sic].”
D Divya told Express that so far, no such illegal adoption cases have been reported in Telangana. “We have seen many such messages, originating from other States, doing the rounds on WhatsApp. As soon as we spot such posts, we report it to the women safety wing of the State police and the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) authorities.”
CARA is a statutory body of the Ministry of Women and Child Development that functions as the nodal agency for adoption, and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
Need for legal adoptions
Official claimed that awareness campaigns for legal adoptions will be amplified in the next few days, keeping in mind that many children are orphaned due to the pandemic.Sections 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, prohibits offering or receiving children outside the processes laid down under the Act as well as their sale and purchase. Such acts are punishable with three to five years in jail or `1 lakh fine. “Our staff are trained to take up such awareness campaigns, and will soon start an online and poster camping over the issue,” an official said.
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Information on child adoptions should be given to official agencies, said Divya. “For any complaints of a child in distress, people can reach out to Childline 1098, or the district Child Welfare Committee, the District Child Protection Officer or the helpline of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. People can now also reachout out to the Covid helpdesk set up by State WCD,” added Divya.
Why protocol is vital
Adoption through the legal procedure safeguards the right of the child and also gives legal custody of the parents. “In many cases, even educated families do not adopt a child through the legal method and in some cases, they are harassed by the biological parents or had to fight many legal battles,” Divya said.
To adopt a child in India, a Prospective Adoptive Parent has to upload their application for adoption and relevant documents on CARA’s website. “Once the application is filed, a procedure needs to be followed that is the same even if a relative of the child wants to adopt the child,” said an official.