Over 2,000 children are awaiting adoption, with West Bengal topping the list among states, the Women and Child Development Ministry said on Wednesday. Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur said the majority of the Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) prefer to adopt younger children (of normal health and below 6 years of age) in the designated CARINGs portal, Thakur said.

"If there is availability of lesser number of such children in the adoption pool, the waiting period for PAP may be higher," she said in a written response.

According to the data shared by her, 2,321 children are awaiting adoption across the country.  The highest number of such children are in West Bengal at 309, followed by Maharashtra at 261, Odisha at 225, Bihar at 205 and Telangana at 197.

Responding to another question, Thakur said the projected population of all children up to 5 years in India for the year 2021 is 13.75 crores approximately.

"However, only 7.49 crore children up to 5 years were enrolled in anganwadis and registered on Poshan Tracker of the Ministry of Women and  Child Development as per the February 2025 data," the minister said.

A total of 7.25 crore of them were measured on growth parameters of height and weight and 39.09 per cent of them have been found to be stunted, 16.60 per cent have been found to be underweight and 5.35 per cent are said to have been wasted (a child too thin for her height), she said.  In response to another question, she said the women's helpline has been integrated with Emergency Response Support System and so far, they have handled over 2.10 crore calls and assisted over 84.43 lakh women. She added that as of January 2025, 745 fast track special courts, including 404 exclusive POCSO (e-POCSO) courts, are operational in all states and Union territories.