NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday asked the state governments to achieve a target of 20,000 adoptions by next year. And Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has asked the states to take stringent action against the Child Care Institutions that are not abiding by the rules, take penal action against them for illegal detention or illegal confinement of children and transfer the children in these institutions to nearby Specialised Adoption Agencies.
She expressed regret that during the last three years, the number of adoptions has hovered between 4,000-5,000, which is inexplicably low in comparison to the magnitude of children without parental care. It is shocking that there are less than 800 normal and almost equal number of special needs adoptable children in 411 recognised adoption agencies in the country as on date, while there are almost 9,000 parents registered to adopt a child, she said.
There were 4,694, 3,924 and 3,988 in-country adoptions during 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively and 308, 422 and 374 inter-country adoptions in the same period.
Addressing the National Familiarisation Programme organised for states and Union Territories on the new adoption guidelines, Maneka said they will have to ensure that a proper system is put in place by September 15.
She said that the new guidelines have become operational and upgraded CARINGS (Central Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System) has been launched to bring transparency into the adoption system, curb illegal adoption, malpractices, underhand unethical dealings by agencies and aimed toincrease the number of adoptions to at least 20,000 by next year. The minister said, though, the new adoption guidelines has simplified the procedure, focus should be on its proper implementation and on increasing the pool of adoptable children.