Children who are adopted early can even gain enough weight to overcome any nutritional disadvantages they may have suffered in the womb.
Children who are adopted early can even gain enough weight to overcome any nutritional disadvantages they may have suffered in the womb.(Illustration: Sudhir Shetty)
India has proposed changing the law that governs adoption in order to fast-track court clearances, which often delays the process by more than two years. The proposed amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 empowers district courts to declare children legally free for adoption, moving away from the busy courts of civil magistrates, which struggle with backlogs of pending cases and rarely prioritise adoption. The move is expected to bring the time taken per adoption down to about two months.
As things stand, only 2,671 children were adopted between 2016 and March 14, 2017, shows government data. There are no official figures for the number of orphans in India, but non-governmental organisations put the number at about 50,000.
Apart from encouraging more people to adopt, the move will bring huge psychological and physical benefits for the adopted child. Less than 1 in 10 children aged 6 months to 23 months, including those who live with family, get an adequately healthy diet, shows data from the National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS4) released in 2017. The nutritional intake of children in cities is only marginally better than those who live in villages, with only 10.1% of urban kids and 8.2% of rural children getting an adequate diet of four or more food groups, excluding milk. Since toddlers who live with their families are more likely to be adequately fed than those who eat in a large group, very often with older children, early adoption also packs a nutritional punch.