FFIA - India

India

Adoptions have been taking place since the 60s from India. During the 70s, some children came to Sweden privately and the rest through AC. One of the private routes was our Poona contact, when Eva Minton placed children with the help of SOFOSH and Dipika Maharaj Singh. That contact came to FFIA during the mid-80s.

The FFIA's first authorization in 1979 was for the Juvenile Court in Mumbai (Bombay). It was about children who were placed partly in state orphanages and partly in private orphanages, but who were responsibly sorted under the court. The court assigned us children who had been fully investigated and declared abandoned, usually foundlings.

FFIA received 90 children from the Juvenile Court during the years 1980 - 1985.

A judgment of the Supreme Court of India in 1985 changed and systematized the adoptions. It was regulated how the orphanages should handle children who were placed with them from the courts. After this time, children of this category came directly from the orphanages.

FFIA's contact network was gradually expanded during the 80s and 90s.

The general procedure in the 80s was for the organization to receive the date of birth and gender of the child and a very brief medical report. Concepts such as special needs did not exist, but the prospective adoptive families were prepared for the fact that the children could have hidden problems, such as Hepatitis B, hearing impairments, contact disorders, TB, etc. Many of the adoptive parents did not travel themselves and pick up the children, but were escorted to Sweden either by representatives of the orphanage, because organization or in some cases escort service from the airlines.

General demand that adoptive parents themselves should travel and pick up their children came during the late 90s.

Years of cooperation: 1980 - 2014

Total number of children from India: 797

Contact persons, representatives:

E. Raman Rao and his wife Mrudula Rao were representatives of FFIA 1980 - 1986 ( see history ) .

As new rules eventually prohibited foreign organizations from having representatives in India, the FFIA in recent years had no representative.

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