In its bid to make adoption rules more simple and flexible, Delhi Government has formulated new guidelines for people who want to adopt a child in the national Capital.
As per guidelines, any eligible person can adopt a child of up to three years of age provided he or she is in the 30 to 45 year age group. If single parent wants to adopt a child who is above three years of age, then their maximum age limit is fixed at 50 years. For adoption within the country, one will have to cough up Rs 1,000 as registration fee, Rs 5,000 for home study report and post adoption follow-up services and Rs 40,000 for child care corpus.
According to guidelines, it is also mandatory that the couple should be married for at least two years and should not suffer from any major health problems. Only those couples can go for adoption who have a reasonable and regular source of income to meet the needs of the child within the family.
“It was mandatory for the Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) to have a maximum composite age of 90 years for adopting a child up to the age of three years. It is also mandatory for the PAPs that they should be in the age group of 25 to 50 years. But for adopting a child who is more than three years old, the maximum composite age of the PAPs has to be up to 105 years. At the same time the individual age of the PAPs should be in the 25 to 55 year age group,” the guidelines said.
As far as the adoption of the second child is concerned, the guidelines say it would be permissible only after the legal adoption of the first child has already been finalised. This option would, however, not apply to siblings. For all adoptions, the age difference between the PAP and the adopted child should be at least 21 years.
The guidelines issued from time to time by the Centre and State Governments have said that children may be adopted only after a court satisfies itself regarding the investigations being carried out about the adoption. The guidelines said that only those couples who want to give a child a loving family and healthy environment can be allowed to go for adoption.