Streamlining Adoption of Children of a Greater God

More and more Americans are adopting children from India despite its outdated laws despite archaic laws and cumbersome procedures. The regulations, officials say, are necessary to prevent the exploitation or abuse of the adopted children.

"Through a son one conquers the world, through a grand-son one obtains immortality and through the great-grandson one ascends to the highest heaven..." --- Baudhayana: II, 2, xi. (Also Manu in Manusmriti)

How to Cope with Laborious Procedures

India has an estimated two million destitute children. Only 2,356 children were, however, adopted in 1997. The main reason could be the by-and-large antiquated adoption rules, laws and procedures. In fact, as antiquated as the concept of adoption itself, which is said To have arisen out of ancient Hindu belief that a son was essential for every man to deliver him from hell.

The institution of "sonship" was regarded as important as the institution of marriage. It was therefore deemed essential for a childless couple that it was always better to have a substitute of a son, a "dattaka" (adopted one), than to have none at all.

Though the present legal system has done away with the sacramental aspects of adoption, modern procedures for adopting a child are quite cumbersome and involve inordinate delays.

Different laws for different communities in the country compound the problem. Under the present legal system, only Hindus, Sikhs and Jains are allowed to adopt children under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. Since adoption is a Constitutional right, Muslims and Christians can also adopt, but only under the Guardianship and Wards Act of 1890, which entitles them to become guardians of the child, but does not legally permit them to adopt.

Despite a great demand from childless couples, adoptions are reportedly being made in small numbers as there are a lot of bureaucratic hurdles for both in-country and inter-country adoption, social activists say.

Mohini Raghunathan of Children for World, a nongovernmental organization dealing with adoptions, however, is still optimistic. "But they are picking up (children), that's a big thing," Raghunath told India Abroad.

The procedure for adoption is quite tedious. And social activists complain that it takes a lot of time to complete the paper work right from the moment the child arrives in the placement agency and till it joins its foster parents.

And there are two kinds of children, who come to these agencies and who can be adopted: those relinquished by their parents or guardians and those who are found abandoned.

If the child is voluntarily relinquished by somebody, the placement agencies wait for three months (to give the parents time to reconsider their decision) and then begin the procedure for adoption.

A relinquishment letter is obtained from the person who is giving up the child, and then a medical report is obtained from doctors about the child's physical and medical fitness.

For children found abandoned, the placement agency informs the nearest police station and lodges an FIR about the child, and then notifies the Narcotic Cell so as to find out whether the child is a victim of drug abuse or not.

After waiting for a month (to give parents or guardians time to collect the child if it was a lost child), the placement agency then approaches the Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB), a government body, which inspects the child and makes inquiries about it. If it fails to find any response to the child after advertising in the vernacular media, it legally declares the child "orphan to be rehabilitated."

But the time taken for the JWB clearance can be anything from 10 to 15 days for an infant or 8 to 10 months if it is an older child, Raghunath says.

Only after the JWB clearance is the child free for adoption by Indians. The placement agency tries to match the child with prospective parent/s, who has/have registered themselves on the agency's roll for adoption. The minimum criteria for foster parents are that they should have a sound income and education and should be preferably under 45 years of age, says Poonam Verma, adoption officer at the Delhi-based Sishu Sangophan Griha, Church of North India.

The prospective foster parents can approach quite a few agencies that are licensed by the state governments and the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) set up by the Union Social Welfare Ministry. But there are agencies that deal with only in-country adoptions, while others deal with inter-country adoptions also.

Among the major nongovernmental organizations dealing with both in-country and inter-county adoptions, are "Palna," set up by the Delhi Council of Child Welfare, "Children of World Care," "Missionaries of Charity" and "Church of North India."

After the placement agencies match the profiles of the child and the prospective adopting family, the child is given in "foster care," a trial period to judge whether or not the family is capable of and treating the child properly. But before this, the parents are interviewed by the agency and sometimes by a shrink and a counselor.

In the meantime, the adoption case is sent to the local courts through the placement agencies' lawyer to complete the legal formalities.

The medical and legal study reports of the child as well as the agency's report on the foster parents home (homestudy report) are then sent to the

Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW), a nongovernmental organization, given the responsibility of matching the family and the child and scrutinizing every case.

"The ICCW's role is important because it assists the court in matching the child and the prospective family in order to rule out risk and misplacement so as to make sure that the placement agency has not done any mischief," says Raghunath.

The child is then ready for adoption by any Indian family, which has to pay the agency Rs. 10,000 as adoption fee. The fee was increased to Rs. 12,000, in February this year and it includes the fee of upkeep and maintenance of the child, CARA and CVARA fees, court fees, medical expenses and the like.

But in case of children who are not selected by Indian parents because of various reasons like overage (6-7 years or more children), looks, color, medical problems, siblings of the same sex (who can't be adopted by the same parents), Muslim children who are circumcised, then they are referred for foreign adoption, says Raghunath.

But the procedure for foreign adoption is even more time taking and tedious. Foreign parents have to first approach placement agencies in their own countries; their applications are matched with children in Indian agencies, then the Embassies of both the countries coordinate and make comprehensive homestudy reports.

The foreigners can obtain the guardianship of only those children, who have been deemed fit for inter-country adoption since they have not been selected by a minimum of three families in the country.

But such a regulation has its own problems. It might lead to and reportedly does lead to placement agencies falsely claiming that a child is fit for adoption abroad since three Indian families have earlier rejected it, because such transactions are reported to fetch huge donations, social activists say.

In order to prevent such cases, therefore, according to a Supreme Court directive in 1984, the Union government set up watchdogs like Voluntary Coordinating Agencies (VCAs) (which is called Coordinating Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency (CVARA) in Delhi) in major Indian cities and the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA).

The VCAs or the CVARA check that the child is indeed fit only for adoption abroad and gives a no-objection certificate for inter-country adoption. CARA then on the basis of the attested documents gives a no-objection certificate for inter-country adoption.

The case is sent to court, which passes an order on the case and gives a birth affidavit. After the parents obtain guardianship of the child, they have to register the application in passport and visa offices, which then takes anything between 21 days to any number of years.

The parents then have to adopt the child according to the adoption laws of their own country. The progress of these children, after the adoption deed is signed by the parents, is monitored through quarterly and half-yearly reports submitted by the placement agencies in that country through embassies.

Mohini Ragunath of Children of World says it's actually nice that most inter-country adoptions are by Norway couples as this is a country affluent and not exposed to the deceit of the world, tucked away deep in the arctic.

Regulatory Framework Set Up to Streamline Process