Speed up adoption process: Maneka

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has asked the authorities to speed up the child adoption cases pending in various institutions across the country.

Gandhi has written to chief justices of all high courts to expedite the legal procedures involved in the adoption process.

She also directed ministry officials to ensure that the backlog be cleared immediately, an official release said here Tuesday.

There are around 2,400 children waiting for adoption in 324 specialised adoption agencies in the country. There are over 1,250 children's homes in India.

The women and child development ministry is also trying to integrate the children's homes with specialised adoption agencies making older children also available for adoption.

The website of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has also been integrated with social network Facebook to make it more accessible.

Apart from this, Gandhi has also set up two new e-mail accounts and a Facebook page for anyone who needs help.

These accounts have been created to facilitate an interactive exchange between people who need assistance of any kind from the ministry and need to know more about various schemes and programmes, the release said.