Kids’ adoption falls to 20 in 2021 against 27 in 2019

Jaipur: Even as the international adoption increased steadily from 2019 to 2021, the overall adoption of children from government Shishu Grah in city went down marginally in the same period.

While in 2019, only one child was adopted by international citizens, in 2021, total eight children were adopted by foreigners. Officials claimed that international citizens were open to the idea of adopting special children while Indians were not. In 2019, a total of 27 children were adopted which came down to 24 in 2020. Out of which four were international adoptions, while in 2021, 20 children were adopted.

Panwar Kiran, superintendent, Gandhinagar Shishu Grah, elaborating on this trend, said, “The number of international adoptions did go up in the past two years as people from abroad are keen to adopt even special children. This might be because the medical facilities abroad are possibly better and more importantly the international governments bear their medical expenses so it makes it somewhat easier.”

The adoptions are processed through Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) which is a statutory body of Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India. It functions as the nodal body for adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions. CARA is designated as the Central authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993, ratified by Government of India in 2003. CARA primarily deals with adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated /recognised adoption agencies.

Most of the adoptions were of girl children which included both domestic and international adoptions. In the latter, people from countries like Spain, Canada and others adopted children from India.

Talking about adoption of special children, the official said that most of them have treatable or manageable ailments. "In the end, they love the child and decide they want him/her in their life," she said.

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