Rigid adoption rules add to woes of prospective parents

KOCHI: In addition to the challenges posed by the pandemic, the state is struggling to alleviate the concerns of the prospective parents in the backdrop of rigid rules set by the Centre. Biju Prabhakar, chairman of the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA), told TNIE that the pan-India platform for adoption — CARINGS (Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System), introduced by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) — doesn’t give much choice to parents to adopt kids from the same state.

“We wrote to the ministry multiple times about this. A Keralite cannot adopt a child belonging to Manipur because of the physical difference. Likewise, a North Indian may not prefer to adopt a child from South India. Hence, they should give the applicants first preference to adopt a child belonging to their respective states,” said Biju.

He added that rigid rules would make people want to bypass the procedure, increasing malpractices. “For a child, every day is valuable. There are several cases when the parents are no more and the surviving parent is not interested in keeping the child. Such children are not treated legally free for adoption. The result being that the child is denied care and shelter,” said Biju.He added that the stigma surrounding adoption is yet another issue. “In other countries, people feel proud about adopting children and the society appreciates them. But here, prospective parents are usually not very comfortable.”

The Centre had also made a move to enable district collectors, instead of family courts, to take the call on children. “Institutional care is the last resort. In Kerala, some institutions do it for commercial gain. We had shut down multiple institutions because of such malpractices. They are raising funds from other countries, which is unethical. This is why deinstitutionalisation is being pushed. We are exploring foster care and adoption and trying to keep the children at their own homes by giving necessary funding to custodians,” he added. 

in a nutshell
Adoption data during March, 2017 - March, 2018 
Total number of adoptions : 164
In-country adoption : 141 (71 male, 70 females)
Inter-country adoption - 23 (9 male, 14 female)
March, 2018 -March, 2019
Total number of adoption : 132
In-country adoption - 119 (69 male, 50 female)
Inter-country :  13 (4 male, 9 female)
March, 2019 -March, 2020 
Total number of adoption : 117
In-country adoption : 111 (52 male, 59 female)
Inter-country : 6 (3 male, 3 female)
March 2020 to till day : around 80