CARA Making choice of your agency

Adoption discussion # 9

CARA is contemplating of a change in the procedure of inter-country adoptions. All the dossier papers from a foreign adoption agency need to be sent to CARA which will evaluate and assign an adoption agency for the family.

Personally, I like/ dislike this proposed change for various reasons. I like it because it will effectively remove the nexus between the foreign adoption agencies and domestic adoption agencies. Also it will even out the number of inter-country adoptions among all the eligible agencies in India.

I dislike it because a single organization such as CARA evaluating all the inter-country adoption applications can lengthen the process which in itself is against the objectives of CARA. I also dislike it because it effectively removes the choice from an adoptive family as to which agency in India they would like to use.

Currently adoptive families do not have much of a choice in using their choicest agency in India without using the agency in their country that works with that particular agency. This means that two agencies have to be on the same frequency of choice of a family which can be difficult. This proposed change can address this.

This contemplated change is an effort of CARA to bring in much needed transparency in adoptions in sincere spirit. It must be commended and supported but with few changes to address the above mentioned concerns – delays and choices.

Here is my suggestion to make this better: Delays can be addressed by having branch offices of CARA in four corners of the country. Dossier will be sent to the main CARA office which will redirect it after due diligence to the respective branch. In the dossier, family should be required to list three adoption agencies of their choice anywhere in the country which will be considered a first choice. In case of a family not mentioning, or for any reason those agencies that are listed by the family cannot be used, CARA will use their discretion to make a choice of an agency.

Listing of adoption agencies by the families will bring in much needed healthy competition among the Indian agencies to stay on par to be the preferred agency. In this day and age of information technology, word spreads of good or not so good agencies and people will make their own choices based on such information.

I would also like this suggestion to be taken to an extra length by mandating that the fee of 3500 dollars be paid to CARA which will redirect the same to the agency once the adoption is completed.

What do you think? Write me your comments.....