Do you know this?

There are approximately 18000 parents registered with CARA, while the number of children in the Government's adoption pool is less 1800.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Slide # 6

Provide portable health insurance for all the adoptable children

It was in August of 2004, we were still living in the US, when we got our referral for the second daughter – Lily. Right away we fell in love with her pictures and video clips. When we were told about her physical impairment (born with club feet), it didn’t even cross our minds once to consider saying no.


I have also witnessed in India culture camps in the US, some of the Indian children with special needs being adopted by Americans that are so severely impaired that they will never walk but remain in the wheel chairs for the rest of their lives.

I always wondered if it was just love to adopt or anything more involved in adopting children with special needs. Using my own family’s example of decision making, I can logically conclude that there’s no doubt about the foreign families love to adopt but then comes something that they all look up to, to acquire courage to adopt children with special needs. That is health insurance.



My daughter needed corrective surgery to both her feet and she was in the hospital for one night. Our bill was 8000 dollars. We couldn’t have afforded such a high price procedure if not for the health insurance.

With this background, I would like to say that if Indian children could have health insurance that can go along with them even after adoption, I am sure there’ll be some Indian families that might come forward to adopt children with special needs.

I suggest that CARA purchase a health insurance policy of 3 lakhs of rupees for the first three years for all the adoptable children. This must have portability to go along with the child when a loving family adopts him/her. I am not suggesting that health insurance policy is a magic wand to see all the Indian children with special needs being adopted by Indians. Apart from the affordability to care, there’s also stigma of the society that many families might factor in, in having a child with special needs at home. It is only a beginning and there will be more work to be done to educate and inform the Indian adoptive families to consider adopting children with special needs.

Ruby Nakka

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