INTRODUCTION
Children are a precious gem of parenting life as they are the most joyous, cheerful, and an asset for the country’s future. Adoption has been practiced since an early time, which refers to the legal transfer of parental rights from one person or couple to another one. The adoptive parents have the same rights and responsibilities as that biological parent and an adopted child have the same right to be treated nicely and get all the social, emotional, legal, and kinship benefits of the biological children. There are laws as well that governs the adoption, some of them are- Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 it’s for Hindus, Sikhs, Jains or Buddhists, Guardian, and Wards Act, 1890, it’s for foreign citizens, NRIs and Indian nationals who are Muslims, Christians or Jews, and Juvenile Justice Act of 2000 a part of which deals with adoption of children by non-Hindu parents. Any Indian or any Non-Resident Indian can adopt a child, even a foreigner, a single female (widow, divorced or unmarried), or a married couple can also adopt a child.
REPORTS, FIGURES & CASES
So above we saw about few know-hows and laws related to adoption but the other side of this article on which stands our main concern is about the children who are orphaned and abandoned due to the ravaging effect of Covid that took away their parents, stealing their happy and innocent life which has left them in an unforeseen emptiness forever. According to a report of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), India has 29.6 million children who are orphaned and abandoned, and another report from Childline India Foundation (CIF), showed that in 2017 of these 30 million children, there were only 470,000 children in institutionalized care, and only a small fraction of these is able to get a family care because adoption rate in
India is profoundly low. And these rates seem less in Covid times as people decline to adopt due to the halting of court hearings and fear of contracting the infection. A statutory body called The NationalCommission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) showed that more than 9300 children in the country had lost parents during the covid 19 pandemic, which include more than 1700 children who lost both their parents and have been orphaned.
The recent report from State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) stated that the outbreak of pandemic in March 2020 had made the adoption process halt thus withholding the Prospective Parents from reaching out to adoption centers. The process again started in June, and from that time 437 children have been adopted of these, 378 recorded by the domestic applicants, and 59 were adopted by the international applicants, which was low from the records of the financial year 2019–20.
This abandonment of children lets them get trapped in the vicious circle of child trafficking through social media which is calling for a direct method of adoption that stands to be contemptuous, through posting pictures on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook without going through any legal procedures. It is illegal as the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), is the main unit that is responsible for guiding adoptions across the entire country. This statutory body under the Ministry of Women & Child Development has framed a comprehensive guideline for the legal process of adoption. ‘Pankaj Kumar Mishra, a Women and Child Development (WCD) district probation officer from Uttar Pradesh’s Payara, said that “Any child adoption without following this due process is an illegal Adoption.’’ A case can be discussed on this issue of Child Trafficking where eight people including six women were arrested in relation to the vending of a three- year month-old baby boy in Thiruverumbur and twenty-five days old baby boy in Kuvalakudi both places located in Tamil Nadu, by the district police. The police arrested the illegal adoptive parents, 29-year-old Ashwini, and her 31-year-old husband Govindhan, broker Velamman and her fellow conspirator P Lourdhu, and the biological mother herself. They were charged
for trafficking and abandoning the children under section 317 which deals with the intention of abandoning the child under 12 years of age by parents, which tends to fall under punishment for imprisonment and 370(4) in the sections of IPC and Juvenile Justice Act that deals with the trafficking of humans. Thus, in this case, all the eight people were presented in the courts and held captive in judicial custody. Also, the Child Welfare Committee took custody of the babies and further they handed them over to a particular, specialized adoption agency in Ariyalur. Another case like this in which a couple was booked for giving away the baby illegally was an Assistant professor of a private college, named Pushpalatha, thirty-five-year-old, who gave away her two-year-old son for illegal adoption as she was not able to look after her baby. But soon she realized that she made a mistake by giving away her baby and filed a complaint at the CK Achukattu Police station, Bengaluru. Then the police took up the case under the Juvenile Justice Act, and by doing this act the couple was also booked for charges and legal actions were taken against them as they went without any legal method for giving away the child. By looking clearly into the facts stated, we can surely guess that the adoption process does not stick to the rules laid by all these authorities and people don’t understand the legality of adoption due to which they go for illegal ways thus creating an uproar in their lives.
PROCESS OF A LEGALISED ADOPTION
We saw above that these two cases dealt with the repercussions of illegally adopting a child, so what is the legal way for adopting? And what are its essentials? So, the guidelines of CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) lays down the criteria under PAP (Prospective Adoptive Parents) which is a term used to refer to individuals or couples who are inclined and prepared to adopt a child.
- They first need to register the adoption with a recognized agency, like the Recognized Indian Placement Agencies (RIPA) and Special
Adoption Agency (SPA) are the two recognized agencies in India for Adoption.
- Then the counselor of that agency will give the parents a home study and counseling they might also make them join the workshop sessions.
- The agency will tell the parents whenever there will be a child ready for adoption. They will also allow them to spend time with the child.
- And when the parents are ready, they will sign the document related to the acceptance of the child.
- The parents then would need to sign the petition in court.
- After that, the parents will take the child to a ‘pre-adoption foster care
center’ to understand the habit of the child.
- The parents then must attend a court hearing where the judge will mention the amount to be invested in the child’s name, for security.
- The judge will pass the adoption orders, and after the completion, the agency will need to submit a ‘follow up report’ to the court on the child’s prosperity.
CONCLUSION
This process seems to be hectic and tedious, but it’s always advised to be on the safe side and do things in a legal manner. And cases like adoption are intimate as well because it is vital that children are in good hands and they get good education all at one place so for this a proper family care is very necessary it cannot go unnoticed. Children need to have focused parenting and for those children, it becomes more important who have lost their parents, or orphaned, or left abandoned by the biological parents itself, they need shelter and immense care to grow mentally and physically strong. Adoption is like a new, permanent relationship between adoptive parents and the child, there is no legal difference when they establish this relation, it becomes similar to that of other families who have this relationship with their biological child.
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