Policy Wise

(Admin Note: This is guest post by Sakshi. Sakshi is a science geek who maintains a personal blog.)

Recently, after Brangelina gave up on adopting an Indian baby, Indian adoption laws have been the focus of a lot of attention. While I understand that the elaborate time frames are put in place to prevent the child from harm, it is also these long time lines that prevent more children from being adopted from India.

In India all adoptions are regulated by CARA (Central Adoption Resource Agency), which was set up with the principal aim to promote in-country adoption. In fact, CARA’s policy is to make sure that efforts are made to place Indian kids in Indian homes before placing them in inter-country adoption. The order of placing a child is Indian citizens living in India > Indian citizens living abroad> Both parents of Indian origin abroad > One parent of Indian origin abroad> Foreign families.

In simple words, only after CARA (via it’s NGO/ Adoption agencies) has made sure there is no home for the child in a family with Indian origin, will it look towards a foreign family for securing a child’s need. While this makes sense for a child to be placed in an ethnic group that it can identify with, it also means that the placement time for a child is increased. Now-a-days, with workshops and groups that help to teach such children about their natural heritage, the wait time seems insensible. More time the child gets to spend early on with it’s adoptive parents, better it is for the child’s development.

The bigger problem of course comes from the fact that India has no provision for foreigners to legally adopt a child from India. Adoption in India is governed by personal law which means that only Hindus can legally adopt under the HAMA act of 1956. Foreign nationals (and non-Hindus – Muslims, Parsis, Christians or Jews by religion) have to request the government’s permission to be the legal guardians of the child under the GAWA act and is expected within two years to formalize the adoption in his country. This guardianship arrangement terminates at majority (child turning of legal age) and precludes any inheritance.

Also, same sex child placements are not possible. Hence if you already have a baby boy, you can not adopt another one! Meant for preventing the boy-crazy Indian family from adopting same gender children, it also prevents families from adopting two girls.

Unlike China, India does not require you to declare that you are not a homosexual when adopting. But neither does India place children with same sex couples. This is not surprising since homosexuality itself is a crime in India, however it seems unfair to deny a child a loving home.

With about 12.5 million orphan children and only 300 licensed NGOs helping to place them (source – indianngos.com) and an average placement time of 18 months with infants, the odds are not placed in favor of the kids or for foreign nationals hoping to adopt Indian kids. In India only 4000 kids are adopted each year and 320 visas were issued to orphaned immigrants by US in 2006. In lieu of this abysmal rate of adoption, the recent decision by CARA to shorten the proceedings to two months is welcome. After 1992, when China relaxed it’s adoption laws, the number of orphaned (abandoned girls due to the one child law) children adopted by American citizens grew rapidly (with about 6500 Visas being issued last year).

On the flip side, any changes to the law must be accompanied with constant vigilance of the child for at least 5 years after placement. In a need to place more children into happy and caring homes, one should not forget to give the utmost importance to their safety.

(to be continued)