Generational obsessive preference for sons in rural India is rooted in the prevalent patriarchal system that has ultimately indoctrinated into a gender biased situation, thereby, disregarding the value and capacity of daughters. Thus, when we talk about the upsurge in girl child adoption, it still remains a concerning issue in rural India.
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Child adoption can generally be defined as a personal, social and legal act whereby an adult accepts a child as their own with a sense of responsibility, care and love. The adoptive parent/parents honour and restore the fundamental rights and obligations of the adopted child. Child adoption involves three participants; the adoptive child, the birth family and the adoptive family. It is due to the integrated involvement of this triad that child adoption acquires the nature of ‘social service’.
Touching on child adoption, specifically adoption of the girl child, data uploaded on the website of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) reveals that prospective adoptive parent/parents prefer girls over boys in their adoption plan. The CARA data states that in 2019-20 of the 3,351 in-country adoptions there were 1,938 girls and 1,413 boys. In 2020-21 of the 3,142 domestic adoptions 1,856 were girls and 1,286 were boys. Thereby, accentuating a steady escalation in the number of girl child adoptees.
The formal practice of child adoption is governed by a myriad of ethical principles like justice, non-maleficence and benevolence. Talking of justice and unfairness in the context of child adoption in the Indian milieu, it is apparent that there is a lack of equal inclusivity on the basis of the child’s gender identity.