Panel moots district-level survey to bring more children into adoption

Source: The post is based on the article “Panel moots district-level survey to bring more children into adoption” published in The Hindu on 16th August 2022.

What is the News?

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice have tabled the report titled “Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws” in Parliament.

What are the key findings of the report?

Too few Children’s available for adoption in India in spite of millions of orphans: There are only 2,430 children available for adoption by the Child Welfare Committees. 

– On the other hand, there are around 27,939 prospective parents registered with the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for adoption.

– The waiting time for adoption too has increased to three years from one year in the past five years. 

Reason: According to the 2020 Orphan Report of IHH Humanitarian and Social Research Center(INSAMER) there were an estimated 3.1 crore orphans (defined in the report as loss of either or both parents) in India. The reason why there are only 2,430 children available for adoption in a country is because of the failure to bring more children in need of care into the government’s safety net. 

Suggestions given by the report: District-level surveys should be conducted to proactively identify orphaned and abandoned children.

– A monthly meeting chaired by the District Magistrate should be held in every district to ensure that orphan and abandoned children found begging in the streets are produced before the Child Welfare Committee and are made available for adoption at the earliest.