A shot in the arm for overseas adoption scene ……….Ishani Duttagupta
THERES some hope for overseas Indian couples who are keen on adopting Indian children as well as for a few of the 11 million abandoned children in India.
While there are long queues of nonresident Indians, people of Indian origin and overseas citizens of India, who are keen on adopting Indian children, now a streamlining of Indian adoption guidelinesboth in-country and intercountrymay help clear some of the backlogs and reduce delays.
Demographers predict that the young Indian population will help fill in global skills shortages and intercountry adoption is seen as an ideal route for this. Indians based overseas have faced big delays while trying to adopt children from India. This is despite a proposal by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, that the overseas citizens of India (OCIs) and NRIs be treated at par with all Indian citizens in matters of adoption. The ministry of women & child development has, in fact, started to treat OCIs at par with NRIs in this regard. What that means is that an adoption co-ordination agency in the home countryas is required for PIOs and foreignersis not required for NRIs & OCIs.
Even the fact that India became a signatory to the Hague convention on inter-country adoptionas early as 2003 has not helped in reducing delays. Now, the central adoption resource authority (CARA) is creating an adoption resource information and guidance system that will have an online database of all children with nongovernmental agencies, who have been cleared for adoption. CARA, which functions within the fold of the ministry of women and child development, will also be strengthened to enable better co-ordination with state level adoption agencies and recognised placement agencies, said deputy director Jagannath Pati. One of the reasons for which NRI/OCI and PIO families currently face delays is because the recognised Indian placement agencies face delays of several months in getting their licences renewed by various states every three years. While The licensing norms are governed by CARA guidelines, the actual process of inspection and registration is carried out by the state governments. The main principle behind the guidelines are to prevent trafficking of children, however we are also keen on streamlining the process and are working towards reducing delays in inter-country adoption process, said Mr Pati.
CARA charges a high adoption fee of $3500 for every inter-country adoption case so that the money can be used to subsidise India adoption process and to streamline it. The fact that government guidelines promote domestic adoption actively and treat foreign adoption as the last resort is the main reason why even parents of Indian origin face delays. Overall, there are more parents than there are children available and thats the main reason for delays. However, once the referral and matching between parents and adopted children take place, a supreme court directive has made it compulsory for the process to be completed within two months. And in some cases, even if there are delays, pre-adoption foster care is possible by the parentspending a court ordereven for NRIs and OCIs, if one of the parents is based in India, Mr Pati said.
The guidelines, it is hoped, will also mean that the NOC of CARA comes first, which will then have to be supported by a court orderthus reducing time required for the complete process. Many NRIs and OCI parents, who are in queue for adoption hope that steps will be announced at the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which is being held in Chennai between January 7 and 9, 2009, to streamline the process.