I couldn’t have asked for better email to read today that said that all non-Hindu and foreign adoptive families would be considered on par with Hindu families. If you haven’t read it, ministry of women and child development has framed new rules to be in compliance with JJ Act of 2000 and it’s amendment of 2006 to allow adoptions by all religions.
These new rules will give parental rights equally to all the citizens of India. I have always said that discriminating Indians from adopting based on their faith is more than procedural difficulties. It is a denial of fundamental right to equality bestowed upon its citizens by the constitution. Well…. that’s history now. Hats off to all those who fought tooth and nail for this change and this country will always be grateful to people like that.
What does this change mean to the foreign adoptive families is wait to be seen. Even if the foreign adoptive families are allowed to have parental rights, some of their own countries or different states/ provinces in the same country still require them to readopt their children under their own laws. If my interpretation is correct, this change of rule may not significantly change the way inter-country adoptions take place.
There were other changes introduced along with the above change. It is the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) that is to be set up in every district is to declare ALL children free for adoption. This is a significant change because currently it is the magistrate in a court that has to declare the child free for adoption. This earlier rule has delayed adoptions because of time and workload constraints of the conventional courts. CWC is a group of representatives of NGO’s of a particular geographical area appointed by the state government with significant powers to look in to the issues pertinent to the care and protection of children. As a serving member of CWC of our district, I can personally vouch for the efficacy of CWC and this will no doubt speed up adoptions significantly.
Significant change of all is the introduction of foster care system in India. This is very much in tune with the article 21 of UNCRC. Ministry is asking all the states to frame rules and encouraging corporations and NGO’s take part in it. After I spoke about the importance of foster care system in my CARA presentation, I began thinking about the format and I wish I had penned my thoughts and posted here. To include those thoughts into this article would make it too long and I know you wont read it. Let me make that into a separate article and post it later. But for now this is good enough to feel good about my government and my country.
What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments section below.
Ruby
No comments:
Post a Comment