Delay daunting,authorities attitude worse…..Sumitra Deb Roy
Mumbai: Chembur-based banker couple Anshul and Avantika managed to complete all paperwork after running around for months,in order to qualify for adopting a child.But though it has been little more than a year that the formalities have been done,the couple is yet to hear from the concerned adoption agency.
Avantika makes it a point to call the agency at least once a month.Every time we are told there are no healthy babies free for adoption, she said.The couple took about a year to prepare themselves about the adoption,six months to convince their immediate families and another four months to complete formalities.We never anticipated that getting a child could take that long, said Anshul.
The wait for Malad-based Aparna Roy (name changed) has just begun but red tape has already left a bit of a bitter taste.For Roy found that most of the adoption agencies as well as the law enforcers showed very little sensitiveness towards the adoptive parents.There was too much of scrutiny about why we did not want our own child.Questions on my reproductive health were way too many, she said,terming the first few weeks of formalities as emotionally draining.
Marketing manager Suhail Dandekar found the paperwork exhaustive because of the numerous visits that he had to pay to the nearby police station and the CID office for verification.Demands for certain documents like bank clearances,medical reports,identity and income proof,recommendation letters,etc can get repetitive and time consuming, he said.The Dandekars have been told that they may have to wait for another 15 months to find a suitable baby.My four-year-old is eagerly waiting for a sibling, he said.
Lajja Surekha (35) from Borivali (W) felt though formalities were tedious,such scrutiny was only fair.The agencies have to be convinced that the child is going to be in a good family, she said.However,Lajja felt it was only in the best interest of the child and the family that the adoption happens as soon as possible.Since it is not conventional motherhood,issues like maternity leave have to be sorted out with organisations beforehand, she added.
Managing trustee of Malads Bal Vikas Sanstha,Jayssita Panigrahi,said delays are inevitable.An abandoned child cannot be given for adoption immediately.We have to wait for police to complete formalities,then place an advertisement in newspapers and wait two months for any claimants, she said.But,there is no denying that such formalities,which should not take more than 2-3 months,often stretch up to 7-8 months, she added.