Maneka Gandhi does well to see it as a priority
It is heartening to note that Ms Maneka Gandhi, who took charge as the Minister for Women and Child Development on Wednesday, has hit the road running. On her first day in office, she took up the issue of adoption and is already looking to reform the system. The subject has been largely neglected, and this is showing in the numbers. According to Government data, just in these past four years, adoptions rates have fallen over 31 per cent — from 5,693 cases in 2010 to 3,924 in 2013-14. One of the biggest problems here is that the existing rules and laws are cumbersome and not in sync with the times. The Integrated Child Protection Scheme and Child Adoption Resource Information & Guidance System, which was launched in 2010 so as to overhaul the adoption process, introduced several stringent rules and laws, which only encumbered the system further. This is not to suggest that the rules need to be relaxed — on the contrary, stringent provisions are necessary to protect the interests of the child who, without state supervision, is vulnerable to societal abuse. However, the rules also need to be enforced in a manner that does not scare away prospective parents. Unfortunately, the state machinery that monitors the adoption system has almost been hollowed out by corruption and nepotism. Consequently, the illegal baby trade has been flourishing (for a few thousand rupees, poor parents are routinely duped by fraudulent adoption agencies catering mostly to foreign clients), even as prospective parents, who want to play by the rules, wait for three to four years, if not more, to bring home a child. This is primarily because the system itself has artificially skewed the demand and supply ratio. In Delhi alone, for instance, there are more than 1,000 couples registered with the State Adoption Resource Authority. But within the state system, they have less than 500 children to pick from, many of whom have special needs or are more than two-year old. Yet, across north India, there are an estimated 30 lakh orphans.
The situation cannot be changed overnight. But the new Minister has signalled that large-scale reforms are underway. An important initiative that Ms Gandhi has proposed is the introduction of the foster family system. It is a short-term care arrangement that is prevalent in the West but non-existent in India. Under this system, the Government temporarily places children (either orphaned, abandoned or surrendered) under the guardianship of families, instead of keeping them in a state-run shelter, until a suitable permanent home is found. This system is particularly beneficial to the child who generally gets better individual care in a foster home than he or she would at the shelter, where resources are already scarce and stretched to the maximum. Of course, the Government still has to pay the foster family for sharing the state's burden and taking in the child. But from an administrative point of view, this is the better alternative.