Adoption in India 2011.

1. Antecedents: The instances narrated in the Indian epics like the one relating to Sita, the wife of Rama, being found and fostered and Krishna and Karna being brought up by parents other than the biological parents are indications that adoption has been a practice in the traditional Indian society. While practices continued they remained confined within clans, caste groups and joint family structures. Adoption from within the extended family by issueless couples has been common. The major concern leading to adoption was continuity of the family tree, inheritance and completion of rituals, particularly related to death and life after death. Adoption of male child became a necessity due to such considerations, which later became instituted as a norm. The social reform movement to India in the 18th and 19th centuries also showed interest on adoption related issues. Adoption of abandoned, destitute, poor children from beyond clan and caste was upheld by social reformers like Mahatma Phule from Maharashtra. The social reformers also initiated welfare institutions or homes for the care of abandoned and destitute children and women across the country. Many orphanages, child welfare homes and destitute homes were started during this period. Christian missionaries also set up institutions for similar purposes. Thus institutional care of children became the norm for the care of abandoned and destitute children eventually. 2. Care of abandoned, destitute children orphan in independent India: The free India adopted the spirit of the social reform movement and either set up new institutions in the states or extended support to the institutions set up and run by others. These were in the nature of orphanages, homes for the poor and destitute children, correctional homes, juvenile homes and so on. These institutions would care for children who were relinquished, found abandoned, accidentally lost, orphaned, single parented, destitute, etc. The correctional homes dealt with juveniles with or without delinquency problems, runaways and so on. Parallel to these were homes of the handicapped - physically, mentally and otherwise. 3. Inter country adoptions: The situation in the 50s was characterized by the presence of a large number of orphaned, abandoned and destitute children in the above described kinds of institutions. The practices of adoption in the traditional sense did not include these children, as they were not within the clan, caste and family confines. This situation attracted couples from outside the country that had been looking for children from India. This also corresponded with the non-availability of babies in the west, mainly in the European and American continents. Consequently there were a large number of inter-country adoptions from India during the 60s and 70s. Children were given in adoption through various procedures by institutions, by religious groups, by hospitals and even by parents directly. The practice was more or less parent-driven.

Terre des hommes Germany - India Programme also joined this process of inter-country adoption in the late 70s. In the case of Tdh, though the concern was to find parents for children in need, the pressure from issueless parents sometimes blurred this aspect. It became difficult to discern cases where parents without issues were being catered to and when children who needed parenting were provided with family care and parents. The mutuality in terms of satisfaction, fulfillment and benefits cannot be denied. In the process of working on adoptions, inter-country adoptions were criticized by different sections of people ranging from the nationalists to the radicals. The points of criticism varied from that of abdication of the social responsibility by the nation to that of sale of children for monetary benefits and insensitivity to the racist discrimination in the countries to which the children were being sent. There were also studies which reported that the significant percentage of children given in intercountry adoptions was returned to residential care or alternate arrangements. The problems of adjustment were found to be serious and traumatic. 4. Beginning of in-country adoptions: Simultaneously the new middle class in India started to be interested in adoptions in a small way. Possibility of promoting in-country adoption became quite promising. The international year of the child, which was 1979, also brought in discussions and debates on the rights of the children. Childrens right to family, right to nationality, i.e., right to grow up in ones social, economic, cultural and ethnic background, etc., started to be upheld in public debates. Already in the late 60s and early 70s small groups in different parts of India started promoting in-country adoptions. Indian Association for Promotion of Adoptions (IAPA) in Mumbai is a clear example. Tdh also contributed to these efforts in the early 80s. Various measures were initially set up on voluntary basis to promote in-country adoptions. Subsequently, between the years 1984 to 1991, the Supreme Court of India and the Social Welfare Department of the Government of India also set out priorities for Indian adoptions. 5. Streamlining of in country adoptions: Pune and Maharashtra have been pioneering in the field of in-country adoptions. Voluntary coordinating agencies which was set up initially by different placement agencies in Pune together with Tdh already in 1982 subsequently got statutory recognition from the government Voluntary Coordinating Agencies (VCA) had 3 main tasks before them, viz., a) That of promoting in-country adoptions by giving a chance to every child to be seen by parents before being proposed for inter-country adoptions. This was done through maintaining a central list of available children and that of prospective parents. This coupled with campaigns on the Right of the Child for the family and that of adoption being the best option for issueless couples, contributed to increase in number of in country adoptions. b) Streamlining of adoption procedures through intervening with the legal machinery, judiciary and also making adoption public and open in the interest of children.

c) Finally, VCA also had a task of giving clearance to children to be adopted for intercountry adoptions in the cases of parents from the country being not available. Since the middle 80s support to Voluntary Coordinating Agencies and promotion of in-country adoption became the main concern of Tdh in India. However, few cases of children who could not find Indian parents due to health reasons or other factors like gender, colour, age and so on were given in adoption in Germany. Such VCA projects have been supported in Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur in Maharashtra and also in Gujarat, Kerala and Orissa. VCA was initiated in Bihar with Tdh support. 6. Tdh concern for older children in institutions: While Tdh decided to discontinue placement to Germany, there was also a specific concern regarding older children in the institutions. A study was commissioned to look into the state of such children and propose positive alternatives for these children. The study recommended family like care for these children through adoptions, foster care or group foster care services. Recommendations of these studies have also been implemented with project support by Tdh, Germany in the state of Karnataka and Maharashtra. This involved prevention of institutionalization of children and deinstitutionalization of children already admitted to such institutions. In Maharashtra, the project RIC prevented admission of destitute children to institutions by motivating the parents or extended family and offering sponsorship. The deinstitutionalization project, KSCCW worked with Government run institutions in Karnataka and arranged adoptions, foster care and group foster care for a number of grown up children. 7. Current status: The overall situation of adoption in India presents quite a mixed picture and occasional confusions on the legal positions, lack of clarity and commitment on policies. The central government has set up CARA (Central Adoption Research Agency) which is expected to streamline the entire gamut of inter-country adoptions. Inter-country adoption can only be done by agencies licensed by CARA. CARA also supervises and gives official recognition to Voluntary Coordination Agencies in different states/ cities. Inter -country adoption is possible only after obtaining clearance from one of these agencies. Every child proposed for intercountry adoption is expected to have completed a six months waiting period before being proposed for adoption by inter-country parents. Currently, Voluntary Coordination Agencies function in about 12 states / centers like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur), Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar. IAPANagpur branch (Varadaan); Tdh-VBN (9404) has extended the work to Madhya Pradesh too. The in-country adoptions fall primarily within the purview of the state governments in India. Agencies placing children for in-country adoption have to be licensed from the state government (Social Welfare Department). There is also the Indian Council of Social Welfare, which acts as a scrutinizing agency and provides a clearance for each case of adoption. The legal procedures of adoptions have to be completed in the applicable legal framework within specified period. While the people belonging to Hindu, Jain and Sikh religious groups can adopt children under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 (HAMA), the Christians and

Muslims have to adopt children under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890. While HAMA gives a legal status for a child as in the case of a biological child, the latter only appoints the adoptive parents as legal guardians of the child. Inheritance rights do not follow in the latter cases. The efforts to bring in a uniform law for adoption, though initiated a number of times, has not borne fruit yet. The efforts still continue. The legal procedures in inter-country adoptions are to be finalized by the district high court. While the procedures have been quite standardized in some states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and so on, these are still unclear in other regions. The in-country adoptions fall within the purview of family courts or the civil courts. Central Adoption Resource Agency has become a statutory body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development with its own managing committee and is authorized to streamline the adoption procedures, meanwhile the Govt. of India has ratified the Hague Convention on International Adoptions in 2003. However, the ratification has not substantially changed the adoption procedures because many of the provisions of the Hague Convention were already part of the inter-country adoption regulations from India, starting from the well known Supreme Court Judgment of 1984 Lakshmikant Pandey vs the state of India. (In the introduction of the cara website). The earlier coordination agencies were renamed as ACAs as Adoption Coordination Agencies. These function only in some states and some cities. According to the available statistics there has been an increase in adoptions in general and particularly in in-country adoptions while there has been a decrease in the inter-country adoptions. However the statistics available itself is incomplete as it does not include the number of children adopted domestically from different states. India still has a large number of children who are available for adoption from different circumstances. Various practices are still prevalent ranging from private direct adoptions to trading in children nationally and internationally. According to reports, adoption agencies proactively gather children by offering services or incentives to unwed women or families in difficult circumstances due to poverty or other situations. According to news agency reports trafficking of children for purposes of adoption is a common thing. Reported cases implicate doctors who do such services through maternity homes, institutions and even other personnel like nurses or midwives. However, the bigger culprits seem to be institutions which get around the rules and regulations and engage in international adoptions. The regulations which have been strict were being violated quite often. More often currently the trend seems to be to relax the regulations itself which could ease the procedures for international adoptions and ultimately lead to violations of the principles of the Hague Convention. On the one hand with a growing middle class India has tremendous opportunities for in-country adoptions and alternate care of children who are out of parental care, the demand for adoptions from couples and single mothers is said to be growing. Many cities report a waiting list of parents wanting to adopt babies. On the other hand there is also a trend to make incountry adoptions easier and allow children to be easily adopted. This needs to be combated as the best interest of the child is likely to be brought up in its own socio cultural milieu, rather than elsewhere. It is therefore necessary that an intense campaign for promotion of in-country

adoptions be engaged in. This alone will reduce the need for inter country adoptions in the future. 8. Indian adoptions unclear statistics: It might be interesting to look at some statistical figures. The country report of the Government of India to the United Nations Committee on Convention on the Rights of the Child reported that there are 48 organisations being provided by Grant in aid by Ministry of Women and Child Development to promote domestic adoption. At present there are 64 Indian Adoption Agencies recognized by CARA for placing children in inter-country adoption. At the same time there are 85 foreign adoption agencies also enlisted by CARA for processing the applications of prospective foreign parents.
Source: India: Third and fourth combined Periodic Report on the CRC: Draft for internal discussion Draft 6 dated June 9 2009

CARA has its own mechanisms to monitor adoptions in different parts of the country and besides that at the state level there is SARA (State adoption Resource Agency) in every state and Union Territory. CARA also reserves the right to withdraw licenses to agencies not following its norms and regulations as far as in-country and inter-country adoption.

Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000* Total

In-country and Inter-country adoptions In-country adoptions Inter-country adoptions 1424 1236 1623 990 1330 1026 1746 1406 1558 1293 1870 1364 9551 7315

Total 2660 2613 2613 3152 2851 3234 16866

*This data pertains to only placement agencies recognized for inter-country adoptions. * 11 agencies are yet to provide last quarter data. Source: D. O. No. 5-3/2001-SD, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI.

Year (Jan. In-country Adoption to Dec.)

Inter-country adoption Total(4+5) by NRIs / PIOs / Foreigners NOCs issued by CARA 5 6

RIPAs Shishu Total(2+3) Grehs 2001 2002 1960 2014 573 690 2533 2704 1298 1066 3831 3770

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

1949 1707 1541 1536 1510 1419 1369

636 587 743 873 984 750 483

2585 2294 2284 2409 2494 2169 1852

1024 1021 867 852 770 821 666

3609 3315 3151 3261 3264 2990 2518

(However, this doesnt include in-country adoption figure of other licensed adoption agencies recognized by State Governments.) Source: Central Adoption Resource Authority website.

The recent statistics above reveals a decline in the total number of adoptions in contrast to the earlier decade. However, it is mentioned that the statistics do not include Indian adoption done by recognized adoption within the states. Nevertheless, there are discussions and interpretations on the above trend leading to conclusions that more private and secret adoptions are happening currently compared to the past, with an affluent and aggressive middle class. The likelihood of the increase in consumerist approach to adoption is high. In concrete this means that: the affluent middle class with money power is not willing to go through long bureaucratic procedures and waiting. They are willing to spend a lot of money and get the child promptly from whatever source that is possible. Reports of similar kind are frequent in the media. This however is violative of childrens rights and amounts to trading/trafficking in children. 9. New Trends: There has been substantial increase in the number of girl children being adopted in the recent past. Adoption of children with handicap and serious illness by Indian parents are not uncommon any more. Open adoption has become the norm unlike in the past. Adoption is an accepted option for issueless parents and is being recommended by doctors and medical practitioners today. Organizations and individuals concerned about the plight of abandoned children conceive adoption as the best possible alternative for these children. Parents with biological children have started adopting a second or third child. Cases of single women adopting children have been reported frequently. The media, both print and electronic media, are giving substantial coverage to stories related to adoption and care of abandoned children. Adoption of older children and permanent foster care have also been in practice successfully in some parts of the country. Karnataka State Council for Child Welfare, has placed some 17 children between the age of 7 to 11 years within Indian families in the 90s through a project supported by Tdh Germany. Similarly a project rehabilitation of Street children also supported by Tdh Germany in Goa and Mumbai has a component of promoting of foster care for children living on the streets on an experimental basis from 2009 to 2010. Roughly 9 street children have been placed so far.

The decrease in number of children available for adoption is often attributed to a fewer number of children being born due to preventive measures and widespread use of contraceptives. While this maybe one factor, it is pertinent to mention that despite the growth in affluence the conservative and narrow mindedness about children out of wedlock has not disappeared. On the contrary, there are trends to show that such perspectives are even growing stronger due to consolidation of caste and community factors. This situation also contributes to increase in private adoptions. i) Sensitizing public in general and decision makers in particular for a special Adoption law applicable to all persons irrespective of their religious backgrounds under which every child who is permanently placed with the family will have the irrevocable legal status of a natural born child. Sensitization of appropriate authorities to the damaging effects of the institutional care and the need of every child to be in a stable, long term familial environment. Advocating recognition of equal rights and responsibilities of both parents with regard to children. Strengthening State level machinery to monitor placements in adoption or alternate care institutions. Sensitization of various authorities in order to prevent abandonment of children.

ii) iii) iv) v)

10. Tasks ahead: The changes in perspectives need to be further pursued. In spite of the positive shift from the need of adoption becoming child centered rather than parent centered, the relapse to the former situation is common. A recent comprehensive story on adoption in a leading daily stated It is a leap from darkness to light, from despair to joy. With a decisive stroke, the lid is placed firmly on regrets and pain to reach fulfillment through love. It was ironical that the staff of one of the VCAs some time ago faced with a situation of having to look for children from other states because of the tremendous pressure of parents which were on the waiting list. These are indicators that a shift on focus is still partial. The adoption scene in the country has moved forward but it has so far only effectively reached some centers in some states and some sections. While there are a number of parents on the waiting list for adoption within India, there still are a significant number of children going aboard. The legal position keeps the best interest of the child in mind; that if the child cannot find a family within the country it has a right to get a family elsewhere. A significant number of children are being adopted as secret adoptions and private adoptions. In some states there is even lack of agencies with proper license or permission for adoption. The legal situation also does not allow adoption by parents from the low middle class or poorer sections of the people. Cases where parents from such classes coming forward for adoption and being denied the possibility have been reported. Certain experiments to provide some economic security to the child and arrange for adoption have been taken up so far. Such attempts need to be strengthened. It is also the case that a large number of children still remained confined to institutional care in spite of availability of parents in the country or elsewhere. This happens due to the fact that a number of the destitute children are not free for adoption. They have legal guardians though not able to or willing to care for them. These children also need the warmth and love of a family. Foster care could be a way out but this is yet to be accepted as a common practice.

While promoting the positive aspects it is also absolutely necessary to oppose the consumerist and trafficking approach as indicated elsewhere. Trafficking for purposes of adoption not only take place in the case of international adoptions but is growing in the case of domestic adoptions with alarming proportions. This is also the case with fall in fertility rate within the middle class and availability of surplus income. The media often refers to DINS (Double income no sex) and also DINK (double income no kids) with regard high income middle class particularly globe trotting Indian IT professionals. The latest reports from adoption agencies in Pune claim that significant number of children abandoned are from mothers of the affluent sections like young professionals and students. On the other hand there are reports of affluent couples and even single parents procuring babies directly from maternity homes or other sources, not wanting to go through all the procedures and delays. Once again money is the main factor. The question on the best interest of the child still waits to be addressed effectively. C J George and Ingrid Mendonca. For the Philippines Workshop on 19th, 20th, 21st January 2011.