NEW DELHI: Worried about the falling adoptions rate in India in the last five years, a parliamentary panel has called for a simple and transparent process so that couples are not hassled.
The adoption for orphan, abandoned and surrendered children in the country and outside is facilitated by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and it has come down in past few years.
According to Ministry of Women and Child Development figure, around 5,964 children were put for adoption in 2011-12 and the number fell to 2,406 in 2016-17 (till January 2017), marking a drop of nearly 60 per cent in five years. The numbers for consecutive year also show a downward trend.
It is not just that adoptions are falling within India but inter-country adoptions (by foreigners) have also decreased. As per CARA, a national body for adoptions, the number of inter-country adoptions came down from 430 in 2012-13 to 356 in 2016-17 (till January 2017). The number had risen to 666 in 2015-16. The panel asked the government to apprise them of the reason for the downward trend in adoptions and the steps taken to check the trend.
“It is evident from the data that the number of in-country adoptions has gone down in the years 2015-16 and 2016-17. In case of inter-country adoptions there is a decline in the year 2016-17,” the committee added.
CARA recently framed the Adoption Regulations 2017 to simplify the adoption procedure and it is entirely facilitated through online system. Transparency, informed choices for parents, ethical practices and strict timeline in the adoption process are the salient aspects of adoption rules.
In 2015, the ministry came out with new rules for adoptions but that hasn’t proved to expedite the process. The panel appreciated the streamlining in the whole process of adoption but noted that ground realities maybe different and called for evaluating the new adoption process started. “Whether the change in the process of adoption and streamlining has actually reduced the waiting period for Prospective Adoptive Parents is yet to be seen,” the panel said.
It said that adoption process should be simple, parent and child friendly and the facilitators of the process should be sensitive to the sentiments of the children and the parents.