India adoption rules to get easier

Foreign parents adopting a child from India will have to pay a maximum of $3,500 and not a dollar more to any Indian agency.

Seeking to make both inter-country and in-country adoption “less cumbersome” and “more transparent”, the Central Adoption Resource Agency, the nodal agency for adoption in India, has proposed amendments in the existing adoption guidelines. For eign parents adopting a child from India will have to pay a maximum of $3,500 and not a dollar more to any Indian agency. Seeking to make both inter-country and in-country adoption “less cumbersome” and “more transparent”, the Central Adoption Resource Agency (Cara), the nodal agency for adoption in India, has proposed amendments in the existing adoption guidelines.

The draft “Guidelines on Adoption of Indian Children Without Parental Care – 2007″, submitted to Union women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury has also made HIV test mandatory for all children admitted by the adoption agencies. Cara chairman J.K.

Mittal who met Ms Chowdhary with the revised set of guidelines told this newspaper that the amendments have more or less got the nod of the ministry.

“The ministry has more or less approved the new guidelines. However, the draft guidelines will be put on the net and will be open to suggestions,” said Mr Mittal.

The proposed guidelines have also reduced the waiting time in case of intercountry adoption to a maximum of three months.

Moreover, the children would get automatic citizenship of the country of the parents and enjoy more safeguards, under the revised guidelines.

To make adoption a quicker process, the draft guidelines have said that courts would be asked to give their sanction to the adoption within a maximum of two months.

“Earlier, adoption would take a long time and was a difficult process. The new guidelines will streamline the system and bring in more transparency,” Ms Chowdhury told reporters.

She said that for the first time, a system will be put in place for identification and adoption of children with special needs.

As per the new guidelines, there has to be single window system for sourcing of children who can be put up for adoption. In-country adoption, however, would still be preferred over intercountry adoption.

Source: The Asian Age Newspaper.

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