Lack of awareness, delays lead to illegal adoptions

Chennai

Still worse, government approved child adoption agencies have been seeing a gradual fall in adoptions, making childless couples and others opt for illegal child adoptions either by trafficking or paying money.

Lack of awareness about licensed child adoption agencies and procedural delays lead to illegal adoptions, activists say.

Sources said that a few years ago Tamil Nadu had 22 child adoption agencies and eight were closed down because they flouted norms under the Juvenile Justice Act and the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). Though there are 14 adoption agencies, the childless couples find it difficult to apply  online and lose patience as the waiting time is considerably high.

According to information posted on CARA website, a total of 127 children are in the adoption homes, of which 42 children are adoptable. A Narayanan, a child rights activist and director, Change India, told DTNext , “It is worrying that awareness about legal adoption process is very poor among the childless couples, especially among semi-literate or illiterate couples in small towns  and villages.”  Unnecessary fear and social stigma drive such couples to take desperate measures, which are  exploited by brokers and those in the illegal adoption racket.

The centrally sponsored Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is providing a lot of funds to strengthen the legal adoption process and this could be used for creating massive propaganda through media on the simplified process and risks involved in illegal adoption.

“We are continuously educating the staff of adoption homes on the rules and regulations. We also warn that the licence would be cancelled if the such agencies are found unsuitable in terms of   infrastructure,” said an official in the Department of Social Welfare.

They are receiving applications from volunteers to establish new adoption agencies which would prevent illegal child trafficking and adoptions, the official added.