Besides boosting adoption rates in the country, the Woman and Child Development Ministry has worked out a proposal to start foster care for orphans, a practice prevalent in developed countries.
The WCD Ministry has drawn up guidelines to send orphans to families — either of their own relatives or families that volunteer to be their guardians — and host them by giving them comfort of staying in a home environment.
“The foster-care system is a practice prevalent in many developed countries of the world. The Minister (Maneka Gandhi) wants the children to grow up in a home environment instead of a Government-run-shelter,” said an official from the WCD Ministry.
“The idea is that the foster parents become guardians of the child and provide him/her shelter and care, while the Government pays for the child’s needs. However, the child’s legal guardian will be the State, unless a formal adoption happens,” said the official.
A foster family would be given Rs2,000 a month to take care of a child. Each district would be provided a fund of Rs10 lakh under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme. This would be called the district sponsorship and foster care fund.
“The decided amount provided to take care of the child is small but the Ministry will most definitely increase it if the system gains acceptance,” said an official from the Ministry.
“The system that is being proposed is that that the orphan or surrendered child will first go to a child-care institution and then be shifted to a foster-care home under the guardianship of a foster parent. But this child will still be eligible for adoption in case some parents show interest,” he said. The WCD ministry has modeled the proposal on the US foster-care system where a minor is placed in a private home or a NGO of a State-certified caregiver called a “foster parent.”
Currently, a form of foster care system exists in India but it is part of the pre-adoption procedure. Under the present system, prospective adoptive parents are required to take a child home after signing a foster-care deed with the adoption agency, which gives them temporary custody of the child.
Only after the court issues an adoption decree do the adoptive parents, they can become the child’s legal guardians.