Lack of proper monitoring is cause for worry
Southern States - Tamil Nadu 
Lack of proper monitoring is cause for worry
By Divya Ramamurthi
It was the German Consulate that brought the matter to the scrutinising agency's notice. Ms. Cynthia now lives in an orphanage. ``Once the adoption process is completed, agencies forget about the families. No one really knows them,'' says Ms. Shankar.
At a workshop of adoption agencies and child welfare workers last week, members agreed that there were not enough staff to meaningfully evaluate the homes or to follow-up on the child's progress. Experts are worried about the inefficient screening process, improper documentation and violation of the State procedures.
``The fact simply is that it is impossible for us to monitor all these parents,'' says Maida Raja from Christ Faith Home, starkly.
Ironically, it is the increasing adoptions which are causing them to worry this time. The extended push for adoptions is forcing the agencies to reduce the time they have to scrutinise families, warns Ms. Shankar. ``In applauding the growing rate of adoptions, we are failing to do our work properly,'' she says. Last year 418 in-country adoptions, of 324 girls and 94 boys, took place in Tamil Nadu, compared to 316 adoptions, of 201 girls and 115 boys, the year before.
At the workshop, members also found that some agencies were violating the State procedures by changing the antecedents of the child, to please the prospective parents. Some do not document the interviews with the parents. A counsellor at an agency in Tiruvallur district, who does home studies for more than 25 cases every month, says, ``I am too busy counselling parents to do so much paper work or put out fires in child crisis cases.''
An official from the Voluntary Counselling Agency, which coordinates the work of all agencies dealing with in-country adoptions, says agencies complain of being under-staffed. She says adoption agencies can always hire student counsellors to help with preliminary screening. ``There is no excuse for the slipshod placements.''
The guidelines for home studies and follow-up visits are also clear. For in-country adoptions, the agency has to do a home study before the adoption is finalised and then follow it up with a visit within the first three months. In the case of inter-country adoptions, a separate scrutinising agency-the Indian Council for Social Welfare or the Indian Council for Child Welfare— will do the follow-up visits.
The Adoption agencies say the guidelines are impossible to follow. The adoptive parents, they say, hate the agency's intrusion into their lives. ``Why do you need to meet the child again? After all, it is ours and we will bring it up properly,'' is what Ms. Ravikumar says she hears often.
In a recent incident, an adoptive parent relocated from Chennai to a small village near Salem to avoid intrusion from the agency, she recalls. ``This makes home studies very difficult.''
Not all is wrong with the adoption scenario here, the agencies are quick to add. ``Cases like that of Ms. Cynthia are rare. There is always the larger risk of adjustment problems with foreign parents,'' says Ms.Raja.
The agencies are mooting the setting up of an independent support cell to monitor the progress of adoptions and tackle any associated problems. The cell will determine how the children are doing post-adoption.
``Most adopted kids develop an identity crisis during their adolescence, as a result of which they begin their quest for finding their birth parents. It is not surprising that problems between the families and the child emerge,'' adds Ms. Shankar.
Printer friendly page