Adoption: Online, but without a soul?

Eight-year-old Harsha (name changed) was recently adopted by a couple in Hyderabad from an adoption agency in Bengaluru. The prospective parents were eager to take the child home and

hence he had to be pulled out of school mid-year. Like any other child of his age, Harsha was active

and mischievous. While the father, a school teacher, found this behaviour normal for a child of that

age, the mother found it diicult to cope. She grew exasperated with him. Regretting the adoption,

she approached the agency to take the child back, even as the agency members tried to reason

with her.

Several children like Harsha end up with harrowing experiences owing to the chaos caused by the

unpreparedness of adoptive parents.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has digitised the entire adoption process from the

last four years. While this has brought in transparency and has streamlined the process, the lack of

human intervention has resulted in a dierent set of conflicts: Since the entire process is online,

adoption agencies have minimal interaction with the parents. The process does not emphasise

on adequate counselling either for parents or children and hence oen, both parents and the child

end up in conflicting situations. The online system is also pan-Indian, allowing inter-state

adoption. This creates linguistic and cultural challenges, which neither the parents nor the child is

equipped to handle.

Children brought up in a state-run home are likely to be malnourished and are not used to the

ways of family life. Prospective parents who come with high expectations either about the

appearance of the child or about their performance in school, tend to get disappointed.

Owing to this, the number of instances where children are brought back to the adoption home is

increasing, according to experts. As many as 275 such children had been returned to the system

across states, between April 2017 and March 2019, according to an RTI filed by Karnataka social

workers. Karnataka witnessed 25 such cases, the second highest number aer Maharashtra, in this

period.

The process

Interested couples or single parents have to register with the Central Adoption Resource Authority

(CARA) — the government body handling all inter- and intra-country adoptions in the country— by

providing the requisite documents. The registration procedure is explained on the CARA website.

Once the registration is done, the prospective adoptive parents (PAP) have to transfer their

documents to the nearest adoption agency. A list of such agencies is made available on the CARA

website.

The agency will then counsel the parents and conduct a home study. A report will be sent to CARA

based on this. If the local agency gives a positive report, the PAP’s name will be added to the

seniority list. As and when a child is available for adoption, the couple is notified. The PAP need to

state their decision within 48 hours.

If they give their consent, the parents need to go to the agency to convey their willingness. The

child will be given for adoption. The adoption process is completed through a court procedure,

which the agency will facilitate. In case the PAP refuse to adopt the child presented to them on the

website, they will be given another option within 60 days. If they are not in agreement with the

second option too, they have to begin the process from scratch again.

Read: 'Counselling is a must for kids'

The process is designed for minimal human interaction, in order to make it more objective and

transparent. A senior oicial working closely with adoption in the Department of Women and Child

Welfare, requesting anonymity, said: “I can say with certainty that the online process has definitely

streamlined the system. For one, the online queue for prospective parents is objective and the

adoption is given based only on the seniority list. For another, the online system takes into account

only agencies that are registered with the government and hence many unauthorised agencies

have shut down. However, the lack of counselling for parents and children is a drawback. We need

to work on that.”

What does the present system say about counselling? Malathi, a counsellor from Bengaluru-based

Mathruchhaya, a registered adoption agency, explains: “At the moment, until the court procedure

is completed, there is counselling for parents every month. Once the legal procedure is done, the

parents have to give an update every six months. However, parents stop showing interest in followups and in several instances, change their addresses, which makes it diicult for agencies to

track.”

Malathi added that on part of the agency, they meet the prospective parents aer the child is

allotted to them through the online system, giving little scope to interact with them. This is

contrary to the earlier manual system where the agency had several meetings with the parents

before the child was oicially adopted.

Since the online system is pan-Indian, the system oen allots couple from one state to a child in

another state. Senior Manager of Mathruchhaya, Sumangala Angadi pointed out: “As far as

possible, the system needs to be tweaked to favour adoptions within the state. This will help the

agency to keep a better track of parents and interact with them more. At the moment, if there is a

couple from another state, we take the help of a local agency in their area to give us updates.”

In case of inter-state adoptions, there is a requirement for frequent counselling to help both the

child and the parent understand each other’s culture and language, she added.

Support groups

Madhuri and her husband Paul (names changed), both soware

professionals, adopted a child in 2012, before the online system

was introduced. They see a stark contrast in the process. “They

have something called the immediate placement list, where they

put up a list of children available for adoption that week. The

parents have to take a decision within 24 hours as to whether they

want the baby or not. The entire process is clinical and detached.

It is not really child-centric. Previously, we had to make several

trips to the agency, which gave us an opportunity to get

acquainted with the reality. It gave us time to sensitise our family.

The agency also got an opportunity to sensitise us.”

Paul added that the process could be made more eicient by

covering the aspect of counselling.”The CARA should have

counselling centres and then maintain record of how many

sessions a couple has gone through.”

Both Madhuri and Paul, who are part of a support group for

adoptive parents, emphasised the need for it. “Being part of these

groups is very important. You can go there and share without

being judged.”

As they try to negotiate their way, several couples seek support in

exclusive groups for adopted parents.

There are several city-based support groups for parents. Their

online presence increases their reach to parents even outside

India. Sroboni Das, co-founder of For and Of Heart Babies, a parent support group, urged the

government to include all stakeholders in policy making. Groups like theirs could provide valuable

inputs based on shared experiences and ground realities, she said. The government should also

make eorts to bring more children into the adoption pool by cracking down on unauthorised

adoption centres. “There are many children out there who are not being adopted because of the

lack of documentation,” she added.

State-level programmes

However, aer several instances of disruptions in the adoption process were pointed out, CARA has

begun to look into the issue.

Sindhu Naik, member of the Karnataka State Council for Child Welfare, the only legally authorised

agency for scrutinising adoption petitions in Karnataka, explains how CARA responded aer hard

data through the filing of RTI confirmed their concerns about disruptions.

“CARA is organising state-level training programmes for all social workers and district child

protection units to sensitise them on the entire home level study process. In Karnataka, we see

many social workers sending parents and children for further counselling. The PAP are sent to

counsellors to understand whether they want an older child or a child with special needs. But we

can’t say whether there’s been a drop in disruption as we haven’t collected the most recent data.

.