India’s adoption data: Intriguing, disturbing

CARA and the ministry must accord attention to the vulnerable and invisible community of children silently suffering in our institution

The average number of children in the CARA pool has been around 2,200 over the last five years. One would have expected the number to change after Covid-19. On the contrary, the number of children in the CARA pool dropped (Shutterstock)

According to an affidavit filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, more than 3,600 children have been orphaned as a result of Covid-19 and other causes since the start of the pandemic. The official figure quoted by the women and child development (WCD) ministry is 600 orphans — this lacks credibility given the scale of Covid-19 deaths in the country.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), under the WCD ministry, regulates adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children. The average number of children in the CARA pool has hovered around 2,200 over the last five years. One would have expected a significant number of children impacted by Covid-19 to have found their way into the CARA pool. Even if we were to allow for the procedural delay in declaring children legally free for adoption — a process which usually takes anywhere between two to five months after a child is reported to an orphanage — the number of children in the CARA pool should have increased by at least couple of hundreds (going by official figures), if not by thousands (going by unofficial estimates).

Surprisingly, the needle hasn’t moved one bit. On the contrary, the number of children in the CARA pool dropped, with a greater fall in percentage of healthy children within the already shrunk pool. A closer look at the data suggests some worrisome trends.

Based on data from CARINGS, the system maintained by CARA, there were about 1883 children in the CARA pool in 2018. Roughly half of them were grouped under the special needs category. The most sought-after category of healthy children, below two years, accounted for only 11% children, then. Cut to 2021, and the number of children in the CARA pool actually dropped from 2,317 in March 2020 to 2,173 by October 2021. The percentage of healthy children (excluding siblings) shrunk from 40% in 2018 to just about 27% in 2021. The share of children in the special needs category has increased from 51% in 2018 to 66% in 2021. One wonders if our adoption agencies have simply become dumping grounds for children, if 66% have special needs that neither their families nor prospective adoptive parents wish to care for.

A deeper analysis of the data suggests another trend. The share of siblings and healthy children below two years of age has remained by and large the same in last three years (8% and 4% respectively). The total number of children in the CARA pool has also remained around 2,200-2,300. Therefore, the increase in the share of the special needs category is directly at the expense of a drop in share of healthy children above two years of age.

Though one understands that the pool is not static, and there is a net inflow and outflow of children, given the statistics of special needs and older children adopted by Indian parents (which is actually negligible), it won’t be an exaggeration to infer that many of our children above two are turning into special needs children, while in the institution.

Otherwise, what else can explain the rise in the share of children under the special needs category, with an equal drop in percentage of healthy children above two years of age — when 85% of parents registered with CARA only adopt a healthy child below two years of age?

It appears that neither CARA, nor the ministry, is looking at the big picture. CARA did not even have a fully functional chief executive for almost a year. There have been inordinate delays in getting children into the legal pool, referring children to parents, and completing adoption formalities during Covid-19. But what is unacceptable is not addressing the deliberate trafficking that is preventing deserving children from entering the adoption pool, administering proper care to children in adoption agencies, and being indifferent to the growing number of children in the special needs category, in an already shrinking adoption pool.

CARA and the ministry must accord attention to the vulnerable and invisible community of children silently suffering in our institutions. They are not a vote-bank but they are our future.

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