Reforms on the anvil to spur adoption rates

Major reforms would be introduced to spur the adoptions rates in the country, including reducing waiting period to a few months from a year and mandatory registration of orphanages.
While India is home to about 50,000 orphans, only 800 to 1000 are adopted every year and the Ministry of Women and Child Development is planning major reforms to boost the practice.
"Registration of all orphanages will be made compulsory and the process will be made easier as part of the adoption reforms," Women and Child Development Minister, Maneka Gandhi told PTI.
Adoption reforms are being brought to promote the practice, make it hassle-free and remove apprehensions from the minds of prospective parents. Fresh guidelines are being drawn as part of the reforms which will reduce the waiting period for an adoption to a few months from the year that it takes now.

Gandhi said that the Ministry is working to make it a key feature of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill which is awaiting nod of the Union Cabinet.
The Bill has proposed a crucial amendment to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act which is to treat children between 16 to 18 years, who are accused of heinous crimes, as adults.

However, concerns were raised by the Cabinet on its implications and it sent the Bill to group of ministers for detailed deliberations.
Apart from dealing with children under conflict with law, the Act also deals will with foster care home and adoption of children.

The guidelines include mandatory registration of orphanages and linking orphaned and abandoned children in institutions across the country to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), government's nodal body for adoption, which also monitors and regulates the process.
The reforms also include starting a new system called foster care in which children above six or seven years can be taken into homes by people and looked after without being adopted.
"People may not want to adopt children but there may be people who would like to have children in the house and send them to school. The state will pay for the expenses of the child. It will be done with all checks and balances against possible ill-treatment of children," she said.

Less than 4,000 children were placed for adoption in 2013-14, while fewer than the 4,964 were adopted in 2012-13.