Reactivated India-Australia adoption program sees first family adopt Indian child in Northern Territory

The story of Purvish and Swara Shah is a happy one. The couple remembers the rush of love when they first saw their two-year-old son Reyansh in Karnataka through a video call. They are the first family in Northern Territory to successfully adopt a child from India after the India-Australia intercountry adoption program was reactivated in 2019.

Their journey to adoption started when Mrs Shah decided to become a parent. The couple organised all the relevant paperwork and wasted no time to lodge their application in 2019. This was soon after Australia and India reactivated its adoption program for Queensland and Northern Territory applicants only in April 2019.

Highlights:

Queensland and the Northern Territory have started assessing a small number of prospective adoptive parents: Department of Social Services

In 2019-2020, Australia finalised just over 330 adoptions

Only 37 children were adopted from overseas during 2019-2020

The Shah family became the first in NT to successfully adopt from India last year after the adoption program with India was reactivated.

The Department of Social Services (DSS) has confirmed to SBS Hindi that Queensland and NT started assessing a small number of prospective adoptive parents and providing files to the Indian central authority for consideration in April 2019. However, for applicants from other states, adoption pathways are still closed.

The India-Australia program was put on hold in October 2010 in response to international media allegations of illegal adoption practices, DSS added.

The process of adoption includes many steps and hurdles, and unexpected things can and do happen.

For 34-year old Mrs Shah, the experience was smooth and well managed and, since they were already living in NT, the family met the requirement for adoption from India.

“My application was very well managed and I had no trouble except that the pandemic delayed the process as India went under lockdown and borders were shut for travelling back and forth,” she told SBS Hindi.

"From lodging the application to bringing my son here, the process took two years to complete. And I think that’s as expected,” Mrs Shah said.

She managed to bring her son to Australia last October during the peak of the pandemic and border restrictions. "I had to spend over $50,000 on booking several non-refundable flights which were cancelled and on accommodation in India while I waited for a return flight with my son,’’ Mrs Shah recalled.

No matter how emotionally draining the experience was, Mrs Shah said the pain was worth it and that she now wanted to adopt another child.

"I want to tell my story and convey to people who are thinking to adopt a child that adoption is not easy and can be stressful at times, but there is hope at the end of the tunnel," Mrs Shah said.

A spokesperson from NT's Territory Families, Housing, and Communities told SBS Hindi that since the state government facilitated the first adoption, the number of applicants has slowly increased.

A second NT family has been approved to adopt by the state government and India’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), and the family is now waiting to be allocated a child by CARA.

The spokesperson further said that three more families were being assessed regarding their suitability to adopt children from India, and if approved the families will go on a waiting list managed by CARA until they are allocated a child currently living in India.

Unlike Mrs Shah's experience, Melbourne-based Bindu Dutt said she faced enormous challenges to adopt a child from India.

Mrs Dutt, who adopted a child from India before the program came to a halt in 2010, said she found the adoption process too complex and emotionally draining at that time.

“It took almost five years to complete the adoption process for my son and I found Australian authorities very unsupportive and discouraging,” she told SBS Hindi.

“There was a huge amount of paperwork involved for adoption that delayed our application. On top of that we were referred to an Indian agency to adopt a child which did not have any children for adoption," she claimed.

“Why can’t we simplify paperwork so that when it goes to a different country it is easily handled?" she asked, adding that Australia should do more to help people who want to adopt.

The Adoptions Australia 2019-20 report shows Australia finalised just over 330 adoptions in this period, of which only 37 children were adopted from overseas.

The report said that no adoptions under the reactivated arrangement had been finalised by 30 June 2020, as Reyansh's adoption took place after the cut-off point. It further noted that child adoption by Australians has declined by 50 per cent since 1995-96, when there were 668 adoptions.

Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs in Queensland declined to give details of adoptions from India.

DSS has said that to be able to apply to adopt, prospective adoptive parents must first meet the eligibility requirements of the state or territory in which they live and the requirements of the overseas partner country from which they would like to adopt.

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