Adoption Rules In India
What problems do child adoptions in India have?
- The adoption procedure could take longer due to the distance between available youngsters and potential adoptive parents.
- There are only 2,317 children available for adoption, despite the fact that more than 29,000 potential adoptive parents are ready to do so.
- Children Returned After Adoption: Between 2017 and 2019, the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) observed a notable rise in the number of adoptive parents who brought their adopted children back.
- A lawful business is the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of the Ministry of Women & Child Development. It serves as the primary agency for the adoption of Indian children and supervises and regulates adoptions both domestically and internationally.
- According to statistics, 24% of all returned children had special needs, and many of them were older than six. Additionally, 60% of all children were females.
- The main cause of these “disruptions” is that older children and children with impairments adjust to their adoptive family more slowly.
- This is mostly because institutions struggle to adequately prepare or educate kids about living with a new family, which makes it difficult for older kids to adapt to a new environment.
- Adoption and impairment: Only 40 disabled children were adopted between 2018 and 2019, or roughly 1% of all adopted children.
- Annual figures show a decrease in the adoption of special needs children inside the United States.
- Manufactured orphans and child trafficking: After a nun from a shelter admitted to selling four children, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Ranchi came under scrutiny for running a “baby-selling ring.”
- Similar incidents are occurring more frequently as the number of adoptable children declines and the dissatisfaction of waitlisted parents rises.
- Rumors of child trafficking and unlawful adoption schemes also appeared throughout the epidemic.
- Moms who are single are persuaded or duped into giving their kids over to trafficking organisations, which frequently prey on families with poor finances or marginalised people.
LGBTQ+ Reproductive Autonomy and Parenthood:
- Despite the expanding definition of what a family is, the core Indian family still consists of a husband, a wife, a daughter or daughters, and a boy (s).
- The government asserted in February 2021 that LGBTQI+ relationships could not be comparable to the “Indian family unit paradigm” of a husband, wife, and children in response to petitions for the legal recognition of LGBTQI+ weddings.
- The legal impossibility of LGBTQI+ marriages and partnerships prevents LGBTQI+ people from having children because marriage certificates are required for a couple to adopt a child.
- Illegal adoptions are becoming more prevalent among gay populations as a means of getting around these restrictive rules.
- LGBTQI+ families are fully excluded by provisions in the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020 and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020, depriving them of their right to reproductive freedom.
Which laws in India govern adoption?
- The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 (HAMA) and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015 both regulate adoption in India (JJ Act).
- The JJ Act of 2015 is associated with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, whereas the HAMA, 1956 is under the control of the Ministry of Law and Justice.
- Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs are permitted to adopt children under government laws.
- Only the 1980 Guardians and Ward Act (GWA), which was passed, allowed non-Hindu persons to be designated as guardians of children from their community before the JJ Act.
- The guardianship ends when the ward turns 21 and establishes a distinct identity under the GWA, which designates people as legal guardians rather than biological parents.
How to Continue Ahead:
- Children are typically placed for adoption in order to protect their welfare and restore their parental rights.
- Since they are a vulnerable and unseen population, the government and CARA need to pay attention to the kids who are silently suffering in our facilities.
- Strengthening institutional mandates is necessary:
- A shift from a parent-centric to a child-centric mindset is required in the adoption ecosystem.
- The Need for a Comprehensive Strategy
- To foster an environment of acceptance, growth, and welfare and to acknowledge children as equal participants in the adoption process, it is critical to adopt an inclusive strategy that prioritises the needs of the child.
The adoption process has to be simplified:
- To hasten the process, every regulation affecting adoption must be carefully reviewed.
- The ministry can consult with concerned professionals to get their opinion on the actual challenges would-be parents are up against.
