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, May 30, 2008

Does India need to halt inter-country adoptions like Guatamala and Vietnam?

Here is an article appeared on CNN web site detailing Guatamala and Vietnamese government's logic to halt inter-country adoptions. Article reports of alleged abuses in adoption. If we use the same logic to India, India also have alleged abuses. So should the inter-country adoptions be considered to be halted from India?

There are some who argue that such a measure (halting inter-country adoptions) would only affect the most needy children from finding a loving home and the others argue and say that children are being stolen from their parents and inter-country adoptions is the root of the problem.

May be both sides have a valid argument so the solution is somewhere in the middle. It is very easy for anyone to say that prospective adoptive parents must stay firm in ensuring ethics but I say that everyone included (families, agencies and courts) have equal responsibility in ensuring ethical adoptions.

In India, we do not have any kind of unbiased conflict resolution mechanism for adoptions. I know courts are there but as it is they are over burdened with all kinds of cases and it is unfair for a child and prospective families to wait for the courts to resolve the conflicts.

It is the need of the hour that Ministry of Women and Child Development create an ombudsman that works independently with magisterial powers (like Child Welfare Committee) from CARA to resolve conlicts related to adoption.

Click here to open the page on CNN

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