Gurugram’s 1st govt affiliated initiative, launch of adoption agency put on hold
An inspection team visited the site in the last week of January and took note of the poor sanitation and lack of amenities, and directed the child welfare council to rectify them, officials aware of the matter said
The inauguration of the district’s first government-affiliated adoption agency at an old-age home in Sector 4 has been put on hold, officials said Tuesday.
An inspection team visited the site in the last week of January and took note of the poor sanitation and lack of amenities, and directed the child welfare council to rectify them, officials aware of the matter said.
Last year, the state government had approved a proposal to set up a specialised adoption agency in Gurugram, which the district administration planned to inaugurate on January 31 this year.
Earlier, abandoned children were sent to an adoption agency in Faridabad from where their details were uploaded on the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) website.
However, a day before the inauguration, the report filed by the inspection team constituted by the deputy commissioner found that the centre was not fully prepared to start operations. Officials said the inspection will be conducted again after the rectifications are done.
The Haryana women and child department district programme officer Sunaina Khatri said, “There were no bathrooms and feeding rooms for children below the age of 12 months and there were no attached toilets for children between one and three years of age. The electric fittings were not child-friendly and unsafe. There were no railings on the stairs nor were there bed supports.”
She added that the centre is supposed to be a residential facility for the children.
The child welfare council has been asked to fix the issues urgently.
Yash Garg, former deputy commissioner, confirmed that the inauguration of the centre was put on hold due to a few issues. “The officials concerned have been asked to fix all the issues. Once they get an approval from the team, we will send the recommendations to the government, following which a registration certificate will be issued and operations can commence,” he said.
The recommendations will be sent to the women and child development office in Panchkula, which is the final authority to issue registration certificates, said officials.
Garg said once the adoption facility is operational, residents of Gurugram will not have to go to another city to adopt a child. “Adoption is a complicated, time-consuming legal process. The opening of the adoption agency in the city will make this process easy and less cumbersome for city residents,” he said.
Officials said the Union government formed CARA in 2015 to streamline the entire adoption process. The agency plays a crucial role in ensuring legal adoptions and also secures the future of children so that there are no legal issues later. People wanting to adopt children are asked to submit an online application as a first step.
“Any child found abandoned in the district will be brought to this agency and will be taken care of by the child welfare council team. Their details will be sent to CARA so that they can update their database and can place the children for adoption,” Khatri said.
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