No takers for kids with HIV, no adoption in 2008-’09

Adoption centres and foster care homes are finding it extremely difficult to place children living with HIV for adoption.

According to Madhuri Abhyankar, director, Society of Friends of Sassoon General hospital (SOFOSH), most adoption centres will have at least one or two children who have HIV. In 2008-09, the number of HIV positive children adopted was nil.

“We could place only one child for adoption a few years ago and that too in a family of doctors who were aware of the problems of the illness,” says Abhyankar. Like SOFOSH, other centres, like the Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), too find it a challenging task to place HIV positive children for adoption.

Says Roxanne Kalyanwala, executive director of BSSK, “at present, there is not a single HIV positive child among the 70 at our adoption centre. Couples who have been unable to conceive and finally decided to adopt want a normal healthy child. We have had a few children who had HIV. As they were not placed anywhere, we had to send them to Manavya — an NGO that runs a home for HIV children at Bhugaon.”

In 2008-09, a total of 299 children were adopted from eight institutions in the city. A total of 107 were from BSSK, 79 from SOFOSH, 38 from Preet Mandir, 36 from Renuka Mahajan Trust, 18 from Priyadarshini Shishu Gruha, 4 from Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission and 17 from Sakar. A total of 54 children from these institutions were placed at homes abroad.

Unfortunately, the government does not have a policy for the rehabilitation of such children above 18 years. While institutions send some children to HIV care homes run by NGOs, adoption agencies like SOFOSH has set up its own centre. “Tara is a specially designed centre where these children can feel they belong and are taken care of,” says Abhyankar.

District women and child development officer Prashant Shirke said there were very few instances of HIV positive children being adopted. Charitable institutions often take care of the children if they are not adopted but the government does provide funds beyond a certain extent for their care and medical expenses. However, there is no policy for their rehabilitation after they are 18 years old, Shirke admitted.