US citizens have adopted the second largest number of children from India during the pandemic year 2020, according the data released by the US State Department.

A total of 103 children between the age group of 1-17 years have been adopted from India by US citizens in 2020, and out of this, 76 are female children and 27 are male.

Last year was the lowest in terms of adoption of Indian children by the US. Before this, the lowest number of adoptions of Indian children by the US was in 2013, when only 119 children were adopted.

China tops all countries in terms of adoption by US citizens, and in 2020, a total of 202 children were adopted from China. Data further says that the maximum number of children who are adopted are in the age group of 1-2 years. In 2020, a total of 58 children, who were in the age group of 1-2 years, were adopted.

“Did you know? India is the second largest origin country for children adopted by U.S. families,” the US Embassy in India said in a tweet.

Jayachandran, a local committee member of the Peroorkada Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), has allegedly given up his grandson for 'adoption' as he was opposed to his daughter Anupama's relationship with Ajith, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram.

Anupama fell in love with Ajith and became pregnant last year. She gave birth to a baby boy on 19 October 2020. However, just three days after she delivered the baby, Anupama's father Jayachandran gave him for adoption, reported The News Minute.

The couple now allege that the 'adoption' was illegal and are trying to get back their child.

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Senate Appropriations Committee Releases FY 2022 State and Foreign Operations (SFOPs) and Labor Health and Human Services (Labor HHS) Appropriations Bills

The Senate Appropriations Committee released its FY 2022 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) (links to bill and report) and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor HHS) (links to bill and report) appropriations bills and accompanying reports on October 18, 2021. The SFOPs bill includes funding for U.S. global health programs at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), while the Labor HHS bill includes funding for global health programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).[i] Key highlights are as follows (see table for additional detail):

State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs):

Funding provided to the State Department and USAID under the SFOPs bill and through the Global Health Programs (GHP) account, which represents the bulk of global health assistance, totals $10.4 billion in the bill, $1.2 billion above the FY21 enacted level, $303 million above the President’s FY22 request, but $288 million below the FY22 House level. Funding for all global health programs at State and USAID either increased or remained flat compared to the FY21 enacted level (the largest increase is for global health security). Several program areas in the Senate bill are below House levels, including bilateral HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and family planning and reproductive health. Details on specific programs are as follows (unless otherwise specified, totals represent funding through the Global Health Programs account):

Funding for global health security totals $1 billion in the bill, which is $810 million (426%) above the FY21 enacted level ($190 million), $87 million (10%) above the FY22 Request ($913 million[ii]), and matches the FY22 House level.

Tahiti, October 20, 2021 – After the acquittal at first instance and then on appeal of a man prosecuted for having falsified an acknowledgment of paternity with a view to adopting a little girl, the family affairs judge of Papeete canceled this recognition on September 13 on the grounds that the person concerned had wanted to "escape the usual procedures for adoption" . His lawyer appealed this decision. The child remains placed in the nursery.

New twist in the case of attempted adoption outside of any legal framework which had hit the headlines in 2020 before leading, last March, to the release of two couples before the Papeete Court of Appeal. The former was then accused of having adopted the granddaughter of the latter, through a false acknowledgment of paternity. If the criminal court and then the court of appeal had considered that no offense had been committed by the defendants, the family affairs judge of Papeete nevertheless canceled on September 13 the recognition of paternity made by one of the two "adoptive" fathers.

Taking care to recall in its decision that the Papeete Court of Appeal had confirmed the acquittal of the proceedings for "forgery and use of forgery" - because the fraudulent recognition of a child did not exactly constitute a "forgery" in terms of criminal – the family affairs judge believes that it is different on the civil level. In the judgment, she affirms that the adoptive father who had recognized the child at birth "wanted to escape the usual procedures in matters of adoption or more locally of delegation of parental authority, which in addition to the search for the persistence of the agreement of the two biological parents, is also subject to the control of the family affairs judge who must The magistrate therefore notes that "paternal recognition of the child necessarily defeated this control and also deprived the biological parents of retracting in the aftermath of the birth" of the little girl and that, therefore, this recognition had indeed been "made in fraud of law".

The "adoptive" father appeals

In support of this analysis, the family court judge therefore canceled the recognition of paternity made by one of the adoptive fathers. But the case is not yet over, since the latter's lawyer has appealed the decision of the family court judge and a hearing will be held in November before the Court of Appeal. On the criminal level, the public prosecutor's office appealed to the Court of Cassation to challenge the acquittal, but the Parisian court has not yet rendered its decision. The little girl, who has just turned one, remains placed in the nursery.

Fabienne (39) is ten days old when she is adopted, from Sri Lanka to the Netherlands. At 21 she goes looking for her biological mother. She finds her mother Sita in Colombo. The woman tells Fabienne that she has another brother and sister. Her brother lives with Sita; her sister has also been given up for adoption. Once back in the Netherlands, Fabiënne soon finds her sister Victoria. Two years ago, Maria from Sweden reported to Fabienne. Maria thinks she is a half sister. The same mother is on her adoption papers. A DNA test should clarify the current situation.

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Having a child with strangers. A Belgian reality TV show from the private Flemish channel VTM is widely talked about among our neighbors: it proposes to bring together candidates who cannot have children but who want them. Its purpose is to help people conceive and raise a child with others without a romantic relationship. The first issue - a test episode - aired Monday evening, October 18.

The title is clear Ik wil een kind - translate "I want a child". The symbol of the show: the presenter riding a stork. The tone is set: you want a baby but you can't for medical or social reasons, so we will put you in touch with others in the same situation.

This is a bit the principle of dating programs such as Love is in the meadow or Married at first sight. Nevertheless, here there is absolutely no question of love or romanticism between candidates, but of bringing them together so that they form co-parents ... What the show calls "conscious co-parenting" or "co -parenting " -programmed parenthood "

What is co-parenting?

We are not talking about adopting or in vitro fertilization, but about conceiving a child and raising him together, without having a romantic relationship. These future parents will not necessarily be two. Parenthood can bring together two, three, four different people: a couple with a single person or two couples together, heterosexual or homosexual it doesn't matter. All will have to become the child's co-parents .

Ever since I entered what can generously be called my “mid-30s,” doctors have asked about my pregnancy plans at every appointment. Because I’m career-minded and generally indecisive, I’ve always had a way of punting on this question, both in the doctor’s office and elsewhere. Well, we can always adopt, I’ll think, or say out loud to my similarly childless and wishy-washy friends. Adoption, after all, doesn’t depend on your oocyte quality. And, as we’ve heard a million times, there are so many babies out there who need a good home.

But that is not actually true. Adopting a baby or toddler is much more difficult than it was a few decades ago. Of the nearly 4 million American children who are born each year, only about 18,000 are voluntarily relinquished for adoption. Though the statistics are unreliable, some estimates suggest that dozens of couples are now waiting to adopt each available baby. Since the mid-1970s—the end of the so-called baby-scoop era, when large numbers of unmarried women placed their children for adoption—the percentage of never-married women who relinquish their infants has declined from nearly 9 percent to less than 1 percent.

In 2010, Bethany Christian Services, the largest Protestant adoption agency in the U.S., placed more than 700 infants in private adoptions. Last year, it placed fewer than 300. International adoptions have not closed the gap. The number of children American parents adopt each year from abroad has declined rapidly too, from 23,000 in 2004 (an all-time high) to about 3,000 in 2019.

Plenty of children who aren’t babies need families, of course. More than 100,000 children are available for adoption from foster care. But adoptive parents tend to prefer children who are what some in the adoption world call “AYAP”—as young as possible. When I recently searched AdoptUSKids, the nationwide, government-funded website for foster-care adoptions, only about 40 kids under age 5, out of the 4,000 registered, appeared in my search. Many of those 40 had extensive medical needs or were part of a sibling group—a sign that the child is in even greater need of a stable family, but also a more challenging experience for their adoptive parents.

At a glance, this shortage of adoptable babies may seem like a problem, and certainly for people who desperately want to adopt a baby, it feels like one. But this trend reflects a number of changing social and geopolitical attitudes that have combined to shrink the number of babies or very young children available for adoption. Over the past few decades, many people—including those with strong commitments to the idea of infant adoption—have reconsidered its value to children. Though in the short term this may be painful for parents who wish to adopt infants, in the long term, it might be better for some children and their birth families. Many babies in the developing world who once would have been brought to America will now be raised in their home country instead. And Americans who were planning to adopt may have to refocus their energies on older, vulnerable foster children—or change their plans entirely. Infant adoption was once seen as a heartwarming win-win for children and their adoptive parents. It’s not that simple.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) The Wendy's Wonderful Kids program works to find children and teens a permanent family. It's funded by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Now, the program is expanding by way of a partnership with the Department of Child Services (DCS) and the Villages of Indiana. So far the program has found homes for 160 kids in Indiana.

There are currently only three adoption recruiters in the program. The expansion will allow for more recruiters to be hired so the adoption process can be sped up. The number of recruiters will increase to thirty. Families who are looking to adopt and kids in need of a family will all benefit from the expansion. The Director of Foster Care and Adoption Service for the Villages of Indiana, Nicole Schultz, shares the impact the increase in recruiters will have on local families.

"But obviously with three recruiters, they're spread thin. But, if we can expand that to thirty we can be in the thousands for adoptions in Indiana" says Schultz.

Melissa Crace and her husband Ryan adopted their son Shane in 2019. They went through the Wendy's Wonderful Kids program to adopt their son. Crace says the process was made simple thanks to the support and guidance from a recruiter. Crace faced fertility issues and turned to adoption to make her dream of becoming a mother a reality.

"Shane's only been in our family for four years, but it feels like he's always been there. And even on the hard days because of autism and just life in general, I don't know where our lives would be without him" says Crace.

Directorate of Child Protection bans celebrations, birthdays and such, of outsiders at child care centres

Have you any idea what children at child care centres or orphanages may feel while you celebrate your birthday

or anniversary with them? Perhaps you simply make them realise they don’t have what you do.

Children at these facilities — where some of them don’t even know their birth dates — ask caretakers when their

turn would come to celebrate.

AN OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE has been told that people who were illegally adopted as children feel they are forced to ‘continuously break the law’ because the birth certificates they use contain false information.

As part of its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Birth Information and Tracing bill, the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth today heard views from a number of organisations.

The legislation will enshrine in law a right for adopted people to access their birth certificates, and birth and early life information.

Representatives from the In it together – Who Am I? group told the committee that each of their birth certificates “contain false information making them illegal, not just incorrect”.

There are 151 officially recognised cases of false birth registrations, but the group said DNA discoveries suggest this number is higher.