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.

Monday, May 07, 2012

5 reasons why Indians are not open to adopting special needs children

Few years ago when my family and I attended 'India Camp' - camp for all the children adopted from India through Dillon International, in Tulsa, OK, I noticed an older than middle aged white woman pushing a young lady of Indian origin of about 12 years of age in a wheel chair around.

This young lady is affected with a severe form of cerebral palsy (CP) and she is a total dependent (everything has to be done for her beginning from feeding to potty activities).  This condition is not curable.  In the evening, when we were all playing in the pool, this mother wore a swim suit and put a swim suit for her CP child with floats and carried her to the pool.     


My immediate thinking was "Why did this lady adopt this child"?  What I learnt in that camp was that she looked at this child as her biological child and accepted without conditions.  Then I began thinking as to why Indians don't adopt special needs children.  Here are the five reasons I think  why they don't adopt:

Medical Treatment: Even if one has money, not all the places in India are accessible to needed medical facilities.  If a condition requires treatment on a daily basis it gets worse.

Education Facilities:  Except in big cities, there are no special schools available for children with special needs.  

Expensive to Care: More than half of Indians live on a daily income of little more than Rs. 50/- (one dollar) per day and the other half also doesn't necessarily make a whole lot more to care for a sickly child for his/ her life.

Societal stigma: There are some in India who still believe that there's a curse in the family to have a crippled child and obviously no one wants to be associated with that if one can avoid it.

Fear of Unknown: If a child has an incurable condition (but not life threatening) and even if one has money and medical facilities available, in India one can only provide for the child as long as they are alive so fear of unknown future is still there.  Unlike in the west where the state steps in to care for such people, India doesn't have such facilities.


Have you adopted a special needs child and living in India today?  My hats off to you.  Would you kind to share your story on our blog to encourage others to do the same?         

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I ve a little boy who has many difficulties, he is adopted and we ve a v hard time their is no help or acceptance and the little help and therapy their is phenomenally costly. schools show no understanding for normal children forget if the child has difficulties. I ve been following many sp need adoption blogs in the west. Their if a child has a difficulty the government is expected to find him a school and medical help and any other services he/she may need reducing the difficulties on the family... here such things dont exist.