This too is a record. Council says Tharattu adoption awareness will be launched on Sunday

THE HINDU BUREAU

A record 50 children have been adopted from the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare in the past six months. Of them, 10 children have been adopted by couples abroad, and this too is a record. Eight children adopted by foreign couples this year are differently abled, council general secretary G.L. Arun Gopi has said.

He was speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday to announce the launch of Tharattu, a campaign at the district level this month and the next to create awareness on adoptions with the goal of making the State adoption-friendly.

Mr. Gopi said these children had been adopted from the council’s adoption centres/child care centres after completion of formalities in the six-month period from March to November this year. The 50th child had left the Malappuram adoption centre of the council with its adopted parents on November 18 for Tamil Nadu.

KOLORIANG, 21 Nov: Women & Child Development (WCD) Director Tokmem Pertin Loyi during an ‘awareness camp on legal adoption’ at the DC’s conference hall here in Kurung Kumey district on Tuesday appealed to the people to adopt children legally.

Loyi, who was on a weeklong tour of the district to participate in the ongoing celebration of the National Adoption Awareness Month, said that “adopting legal

means to adopt children saves the adopting parents from legal complicacies in future.”

The WCD director explained the concepts of adoption; authorities and agencies for adoption; who can be adopted; who can adopt; age criteria of prospective parents; and punitive provisions.

During an awareness programme, screening of videos and presentations on legal adoption were done for the benefit of the public. Kurung Kumey WCD Deputy Director Kago Maya Gyati also spoke.

Denmark's only adoption agency, DIA, which is funded by the Danish state, has paid Malagasy authorities to facilitate the processing of adoptions to Denmark. Associate professor in administrative law assesses that this is corruption.

A few notes here and a few notes there to the relevant authorities. In poor Madagascar, it is the premise if things are to slide a little easier. 

Now it appears that the adoption system on the African island is not exempt, and that this has also applied to the adoption mediation of children who have been adopted to Denmark. 

Danwatch has spoken to the representative of Danish International Adoptions (DIA) in Madagascar, who says on several occasions that she has paid Malagasy authorities in connection with Danish adoption cases to get the adoptions through. 

“I pay a small amount here and a small amount there. To the administration and to the courtrooms. I also pay the police for their investigations", says the representative when Danwatch calls her.

NEW DELHI: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) painted a gloomy picture for nearly 3.5 crore children awaiting adoption in various Child Care Institutions (CCIs) saying that the cumbersome procedures and resultant inordinate delay had led to a situation where many of the children available for adoption reach the age of 6 years when a majority of prospective adoptive parents ( PAPs) are no longer willing to embrace them.
Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for CARA with its director Jagannath Pati, informed a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that nearly 70% of PAPs prefer to adopt children aged below two years. Only 10.3% of PAPs adopt children aged 2-4 years and 14.8% prefer to adopt children aged 4-6 years.
 

Providing comprehensive statistics about adoptions, Bhati said though crores of children are lodged in CCIs, only 2,146 were ‘legally free’ to be adopted. As on October 28, there were as many as 30,669 PAPs registered with CARA. As per data placed before the SC, the annual number of adoptions has declined from 4,362 in 2014-15 to 3,158 in 2022-23.
 

TIMES VIEW

The data underlines the vast difference between the number of children who need adoption and the number of those being adopted. There’s no arguing that the adoption process in India is complex and convoluted. Adoption gives a child a home and limitless joy to the new parents. The government should adopt an uncomplicated but thorough process to encourage this socially progressive trend.

Event to discuss the possibility of intervention for children and families in difficulty in Africa, starting from the relaunch of international adoptions and a serious and shared investment in long-distance adoption.

Conference "From the serious crisis of international adoptions to a Mattei Plan for the adoption and foster care of African children", recorded in Rome on Tuesday 21 November 2023 at 5.15pm.

The event was organized by the Giovanni Spadolini Academy of Culture and Politics and the Ai.Bi Association. Friends of Children.

Speakers: Giorgio Rutelli (director of Formiche.net), Lamberto Dini (former president of the Council of Ministers and former minister of Foreign Affairs), Simonetta Matone (MP, Lega - Salvini Premier (Chamber parliamentary group)), Marzia Masiello (managers institutional relations of Ai.Biv Associazione Amici dei Bambini), Maria Rita Parsi (psychologist, educational psychologist, psychotherapist and writer), Luigi Tivelli (president of the Giovanni Spadolini Academy of culture and politics), Marco Griffini (president of the Ai.Bi association . Friends of Children), Paolo Trancassini (deputy, commissioner of the Chamber of Deputies, Brothers of Italy), Claudia Conte (spokesperson for the Giovanni Spadolini Academy of culture and politics), Elena Bonetti (deputy, Action - Popular Europeanist Reformers - Renew Europe), Sergio Vento (ambassador and president of Vento & Associati), Vincenzo Starita (vice president of CAI - Commission for International Adoptions), Adriano Bordignon (national president of the Family Associations Forum).

The following topics were discussed: Adoption, Fostering, Africa, Administration, Human Rights, Marginalization, Foreign Affairs, Minors, Poverty.

The video recording of this conference lasts 2 hours and 13 minutes.

The content is also available in the audio version only.

Denmark's only adoption agency, DIA, which is funded by the Danish state, has paid Malagasy authorities to facilitate the processing of adoptions to Denmark. Associate professor in administrative law assesses that this is corruption.

A few notes here and a few notes there to the relevant authorities. In poor Madagascar, it is the premise if things are to slide a little easier. 

Now it appears that the adoption system on the African island is not exempt, and that this has also applied to the adoption mediation of children who have been adopted to Denmark. 

Danwatch has spoken to the representative of Danish International Adoptions (DIA) in Madagascar, who says on several occasions that she has paid Malagasy authorities in connection with Danish adoption cases to get the adoptions through. 

“I pay a small amount here and a small amount there. To the administration and to the courtrooms. I also pay the police for their investigations", says the representative when Danwatch calls her.

The Supreme Court on Monday (20.11.2023) directed the Secretary in charge of nodal departments responsible for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act in all States to carry out bi-monthly identification drives to identify children who were orphaned, abandoned, or surrendered so that such children could enter the loop of adoption in India. It was stated that the first of...

The Danish adoption agency DIA receives harsh criticism from the Danish Appeals Board. The agency acknowledges errors.

Denmark's only mediator of adoptions from abroad, Danish International Adoption (DIA), has received harsh criticism for its handling of adoptions from Madagascar.

The criticism comes from the Danish Appeals Board, which continuously supervises DIA.

The warning is very serious, believes Stine Jørgensen, who is professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen and researches into, among other things, transnational adoptions.

According to the Danish Appeals Board, DIA has in a number of cases acted contrary to, among other things, the principles of the Hague Convention and the Adoption Act. And it happened against his better judgment, says an explanation of the process.

Russian State Duma has prepared a bill aimed at prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by foreign citizens of those countries that permit sex change procedures to be carried out, the state news outlet Ria Novosti reported on Monday, Nov. 20.

This follows the adoption of a law by Russia in July that prohibited its own citizens from undergoing sex change surgery or treatment.

Speaking at a parliamentary commission meeting focusing on the “criminal actions of the Kyiv regime” against minors, the head of the legislative body’s Committee on Security, Vasily Piskarev, underscored what he saw as the necessity of the proposed legislation.

He said that the primary objective is to “guarantee an adopted child that he will not end up in a same-sex family” and to ensure that the child grows up in what is deemed a “normal family” made up of parents of both sexes.

“In this regard, we have developed a bill that proposes to prohibit the adoption of a child for foreign citizens if a sex change is allowed in their state, both by producing appropriate documents and by using medical and all kinds of forms of intervention,” Piskarev said.

'All states and UTs are directed to ensure that within every district Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) shall be set up by January 31, 2024. The nodal department in charge of implementing the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 shall positively communicate compliance to the director, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and secretary Ministry of Women and Child Development by January 31, 2024,' the bench said.

New Delhi: Noting the 'mismatch' between the number of children legally available for adoption and registered prospective adoptive parents, the Supreme Court on Monday directed all states and the Union territories to carry out a drive every two months to identify the children in abandoned and surrendered (OAS) category in child care institutions.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said the first of such an exercise should be carried out by December 7

"All states and UTs are directed to ensure that within every district Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) shall be set up by January 31, 2024. The nodal department in charge of implementing the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 shall positively communicate compliance to the director, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and secretary Ministry of Women and Child Development by January 31, 2024," the bench said. 

The bench also directed all states and UTs to compile and submit to the CARA Director data on Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) adoptions by January 31, 2024.