Worried about poor adoption rates in the country, the Centre on Thursday set a target of 50,000 adoptions by December next year. Minister of Woman and Child Development Maneka Gandhi cracked the whip on States who are failing to clear pendency cases before Child Welfare Committees (CWCs).
In a national workshop on review of women and child related schemes, Maneka issued strict instructions to all States and Union Territories to expedite adoption cases pending before CWCs. She asked for a faster preparation of Home Study Reports and declaration of legally free children to fast-track the adoption process.
“Out of 1.3 billion population of the country, only 1,200 children have been adopted so far in this year. This is just not acceptable. States need to register all the Child Care Institutions (CCI) with Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) on a war footing,” said Maneka.
“There are only 411 adoption agencies on CARA’s list with a little over 800 available children whereas around 9,000 parents are waiting to adopt a child. This is a complete mismatch,” said Maneka.