Entrepreneur and media personality Anitha Clemence has spent most of her adult life wondering about her adoption.
When she was 26, she went to India with her then-boyfriend.
There, she began to unravel her past, even though it was difficult.

Anitha Clemence was actually worried about what she would find out about her biological family.

– I was really scared. I had a boyfriend in high school who was adopted from Chile. When he went back, he found out that his mother had been a prostitute and drug addict, so I was scared of what I might encounter, says Anitha when we meet at the Soho House members' club in Stockholm.

Anitha knew that she had been found on the street outside a hospital in the city of Kottayam, just a few days old. It was the summer of 1978 and nuns had cared for her inside the hospital.

In this strictly Catholic region of India, it is very common for children born out of wedlock to be left outside the hospital, as the mother otherwise risks social death and exclusion.

Switzerland is considering banning international adoptions following the exposure of questionable past practices. Other countries have halted international adoptions in the name of child welfare.

No more foreign children should be adopted in Switzerland: this is the plan presented by the Federal Council last January. The Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) has been tasked with preparing a bill by the end of 2026. This radical decision was taken after the publication of a damning report in 2023. 

Berne then acknowledged significant irregularities in international adoptions that took place between 1970 and 1999. The findings of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences highlighted systemic failures and negligence on the part of federal and cantonal authorities. Also read:End of international adoptions in Switzerland

Several thousand children from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, India, Colombia, South Korea, Lebanon and Romania were brought to Switzerland through illegal practices, including child trafficking, falsified documents and the lack of information about their origins.

Written consent from biological parents was often lacking.  

Rayagada,(Badal Tah) : District Collector approved the adoption order of a girl child by a foreign couple from New Zealand

The girl child was handed over to the couple at IDS Specialised Adoption Agency Center in the presence of 
ADM Nihar Kamhar, Members of the Child Wlefare Commitee and officers of the District Child Protection Unit.
The Secretary of the Institution Devendra Kumar Beher and other staff were present in this hand over session.

The Kerala High Court dismissed a Regular First Appeal preferred against the Decree and Judgment of the Principal Sub-Judge, Alappuzha.;

The Kerala High Court held that a Baptism Certificate alone would not suffice the necessity of a valid adoption by the Christians. 

The Court held thus in a Regular First Appeal preferred against the Decree and Judgment of the Principal Sub-Judge, Alappuzha.

A Single Bench of Justice A. Badharudeen observed, "Baptism certificate alone showing the name of adopted parents would not suffice the necessity of a valid adoption and long association of a member of the adopted family would not also confer status of adopted child on a person."

The Bench elucidated that there is no prohibition in Canon Law for having a valid adoption but there is no personal law in India applicable to Christians recognizing adoption.

Italy's right-wing government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni has opposed singles' adoptions in court, but the country's centre-left opposition hailed Friday's ruling as a “historic turning point.”

Italy's Constitutional Court ruled on Friday (March 21, 2025) that unmarried people can adopt foreign minors, ending a 40-year-ban on the practice and setting a precedent that could pave the way to allowing Italian singles to adopt from within the country.

Friday's court ruling declared unconstitutional the exclusion of singles from international adoptions under a 1983 Italian law, which allowed only married couples to pursue international adoptions.

According to Italy's top court, the exclusion of single people risked undermining "the effectiveness of the child's right to grow up in a stable and harmonious family environment.”

The court decision also reflects concerns among adoption advocates over a downward trend in Italy's international adoption over the past few years, due to increasing difficulties for couples in completing adoptions abroad and the high costs related to the lengthy process.

A woman in the city was cheated of ₹7,500 on the promise of adopting a baby.

Radha (name changed) was shown a video by her sister, where with a payment of ₹12,500, a baby could be adopted from a hospital. Radha had emailed the organisation, mentioning the video regarding the adoption. They contacted her through a fake email of the Child Welfare Board, asking her to pay the amount and collect the baby at the Government Children Hospital in Egmore between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Ms. Radha paid ₹7,500 of the total amount, but could not pay the rest due to network issues. “I visited the hospital to verify if the adoption was authentic. My husband and I have been trying to have a child for 14 years. We even approached the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) in the State, but due to the elaborate process and long wait time, we did not go through with it,” she said.

According to sources in the hospital, this is the first time such a scam was done online. “We spoke to the victim. She was not aware of the scam,” said a doctor from the hospital. The authorities have registered a complaint with the police.

Speaking on the incident, an official from the Child Welfare Committee said that this is recurring scams. “There is a need to create awareness on adoption among the public. Parents can adopt children only through the CARA and the State Adoption Resource Agency,” he added.

After 27 years of separation, Ms. Nguyen Trung Hiep tearfully reunited with her newborn twin daughters, who had been entrusted to a French couple to raise. She said, "I just hope you don't hate me."

Two days after meeting her biological daughter who came from France to Vietnam to find her, Mrs. Nguyen Trung Hiep (55 years old, residing in Xuyen Moc commune, Xuyen Moc district, Ba Ria province - Vung Tau) happily recounted the unexpected reunion after 27 years of separation and the difficult circumstances of the family during these years.

Speaking to VietNamNet reporter , Ms. Hiep said she was born and raised in Xuyen Moc commune, Xuyen Moc district. In 1997, after going through a "marriage," she married Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (residing in Hoa Hiep commune, Xuyen Moc district) and later gave birth to twin girls, Nguyen Thi Kim Hong and Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, in October 1998.

She said that at that time, her family was in a very difficult situation. She and her husband had to work for others, but they still had no money to eat. At that time, learning that many foreign couples were coming to Vietnam to adopt children, they intended to give one of the two Hong sisters up for adoption in the hope that their child would have a better life.

More than 2,000 orphaned children are currently awaiting adoption across India, with West Bengal having the highest number among the states, according to data shared by the Women and Child Development Ministry. Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, presented the statistics recently, revealing that a total of 2,321 children are in the adoption pool nationwide.

Thakur noted that most Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) prefer to adopt younger children, particularly those below six years of age and in normal health, through the designated CARINGS portal. “If there is availability of a lesser number of such children in the adoption pool, the waiting period for PAPs may be higher,” she stated in a written response.

Among the states, West Bengal has the highest number of children awaiting adoption at 309, followed by Maharashtra with 261, Odisha with 225, Bihar with 205, and Telangana with 197.

The minister also provided insights into child nutrition and welfare. She stated that as per the projected population, India had approximately 13.75 crore children up to the age of five in 2021. However, only 7.49 crore children in this age group were enrolled in Anganwadis and registered on the Poshan Tracker as of February 2025.

Further, out of the 7.25 crore children measured for growth parameters like height and weight, alarming figures were recorded. About 39.09 per cent were found to be stunted, 16.60 per cent were underweight, and 5.35 per cent were wasted, indicating severe malnutrition concerns among young children in the country.

in Adoptees Educate, Adoption Agencies, Adoption Education for Professionals, Australia, Critical Thinking in Adoption, Lived experience leadership, New Zealand, Post Adoption Support, Search and Reunion in Adoption, Transracial Adoption

On 20 Nov 2024, I presented online to a forum on Post Adoption attended by the Hague Central Authorities responsible for intercountry adoption as signatory countries. This forum is held yearly and shared between the Hague countries. The 2024 forum was hosted by the governments of Australia and New Zealand. One part of my presentation was to talk about the importance of engaging lived experience in the design and ownership of post adoption support services.

An excellent example of living the motto of “nothing about us without us”, is that in Australia, we intercountry adoptees have been very proactive in engaging with our federal government and in response, the Department of Social Services (DSS) have actively engaged our community to be consulted in the design of our post adoption services (PAS).

We’ve learnt how to do this better and better over time. For the first 5 year contract in which PAS was provided, the Australian government engaged an independent organisation to run our Community Stakeholder workshop consultations. The independent organisation also ran 1:1 consultations and small group discussions. For the Community Stakeholder workshops, as adoptees, we attended in person in each city of Australia where a white person facilitator stood up, with no lived experience and asked us questions about the post adoption support and what we thought of it.

Our feedback for these sessions told of the frustration we experienced as adoptees, to be engaged by a facilitator who had no idea of our experiences or the services. It slowed down the discussions because the facilitator had little idea of what we were talking about and it was like we had to educate the facilitator as we went. 

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, has joined House and Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to work directly with the Chinese government to resolve the bureaucratic impasse preventing American families from completing adoptions that had been approved before China shut down its intercountry adoption program.

The letter stated, “We write to you on behalf of hundreds of children and American families who have been devastated by the People’s Republic of China’s decision to halt its intercountry adoption program. We request that you act in the best interest of these children and engage the Chinese government to finalize these pending adoption cases.”

In the letter, the lawmakers stressed the urgency of the situation.

“The sudden termination of China’s adoption program in August 2024 only exacerbated our concern for these children’s well-being. Many of these children have special health care needs, and some will soon age out of care systems without the support of a permanent family. … We urge you to elevate this engagement and press the Chinese government to finalize pending adoption cases so these children may finally be united with their adoptive families in the United States.”

A U.S. State Department notice last November suggested China may allow adoptions to resume for families in certain countries. The lawmakers are making it clear: the U.S. must be included in any such arrangement. American families must not be left behind, and the administration must press the Chinese government to allow these adoptions to move forward through diplomatic channels, without intervention, hundreds of children remain in limbo, despite their adoptions already being approved.