Adoption body plans immediate placement of selected children

NEW DELHI: If you want to adopt a child but are wary of the protracted process, there is some good news for you as the national adoption body plans to facilitate "immediate placement" of selected children, so parents can take home a child in three months.

The children available for quicker adoption will include older children (more than 5-6 years of age), those with minor medical ailments but who do not fall under "special needs" category and children who have been referred several times to prospective parents through Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System or CARINGS but have not found a family.

Normally parents seeking to adopt are offered an option of three children by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). This procedure of referral and matching a child with the requirements of adoptive parents could take upto 10-12 months.

However, "When parents opt for this separate pool they have a readily available and a bigger set of children before them. They can view their profile and reserve a child thus eliminating a long waiting period," CEO, CARA, Lt Col Deepak Kumar, said.

A person who intends to adopt a child needs to first register on CARA's website.

Following which a "home study report" is prepared by the specialised adoption agency. This requires a social worker to visit the prospective parents to collect details like social and economic status, standard of living, compatibility between spouses, health status, etc. This process takes upto one month.

Once a parent reserves a child he/she will need to visit the adoption agency for accepting the child. Parents can then take the child under pre-adoption foster care within 14 days.

Once the court order comes, which takes 1-2 months, the adoption procedure will be complete.

If parents fail to select a child from this set of selected children, they will still be eligible for the regular procedure without their position in the waiting list getting affected.

"This is a win-win situation for all. Parents may get a child early and the child gets a family early," Lt Col Kumar added.

This additional feature to be introduced by CARA assumes added significance as the adoption body is struggling with poor adoption rates. The adoption numbers have dropped by 40 per cent in six years from 6,321 in 2010 to 3,677 in 2016.