86 kids adopted by foreign nationals from state in last 3 yrs: Minister

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha seems to be emerging as one of the favoured states by foreigners when it comes to adopting orphaned, abandoned or surrendered children from various child care units.
As many as 86 children have been adopted by foreign nationals from various adoption agencies in the state in the past three years (2015-17), women and child development minister Prafulla Samal informed the assembly on Friday in a written reply.

The reply said 33 children were adopted in 2015 from 11 specialized adoption agencies while 24 children were adopted in 2016 from eight agencies and 29 last year from 11 agencies.

While girl children were the most in demand, statistics revealed over 70 per cent of children were adopted by citizens from the United States, France, Spain and Italy, a source in the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA), a unit under the women and child development department, said.

To a query whether any of the adopted children were exploited or engaged in illegal activities by the foreigners, the minister said the state government has so far not received any complaint in this regard.

"The central agencies monitor the whereabouts of the adopted children," Samal added.

Maharashtra leads in the country in the number of orphans and abandoned children adopted by foreign nationals every year. Besides Odisha, states like Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are also some of the preferred destinations of foreigners when it comes to adoption, an official source said.

The inter-country adoption statistics revealed that in 2016-17, a total of 43 girls and 5 boys were adopted by citizens of other countries from Odisha. Similarly, 26 girls and 9 boys were adopted in 2015-16 while in 2014-15, 28 girls and 5 boys were adopted by foreigners.

According to regulations, foreigners have to apply through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), under the ministry of women and child development, to adopt a child.

"We receive applications through CARA, which also issues the no-objection certificates to the overseas parents. Once the documentation process is completed, we invite the foreigners for physical verification," said an official in the state women and child development department.