NEW DELHI: Adoption in India has been guided by the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act for Hindu couples and Guardian and Ward Act (GAWA) for non-Hindu couples. Officials said that children adopted under GAWA had faced difficulties in claiming parental properties, particularly in the absence of a will. The new guidelines also put foreign parents who adopt Indian children on par with Hindu Indian parents. The changes aim to more sharply define and widen the ambit of the Act, protect juveniles from harsh punishment and provide for better treatment in juvenile homes, an official said.

The quantum and quality of food served in juvenile homes have been spelled out, even ensuring that children get non-vegetarian food as well as leafy vegetables with adequate nutrition. Rules have been prescribed regarding space, clothing, sanitation and hygiene of the inmates.

The guidelines say that all "types" of adoption will be dealt under the Act and rules framed by Central Adoption Resource Agency.

The agency will govern all matters related to adoption. The adoption process will be made easier and guidelines also pay attention to those children who cannot be placed under adoption.

In their case, provision of "foster care" is laid out and families can take responsibility on this account. Couples will be named "foster parents" by the Child Welfare Committee.

State governments have been encouraged to frame rule for foster parenting and sponsorship from corporates, NGOs and government agencies.

The rules say specialised adoption agencies will produce all children who are to be declared legally free for adoption before the Child Welfare Committee to be set up in every district within 24 hours of receiving such children. The committee will declare a child legally free for adoption.

The new child-friendly Act prohibits use of stigmatising "semantics and accusatory" words like "arrest, remand, accused, chargesheet, custody or jail" regarding a child or juvenile. Such inmates will be seen to be "in conflict with the law" under the Act.

India amends adoption rules to give equal rights to all

NEW DELHI (ICNS): Ending a long-standing discrimination, the Central government has amended laws to grant non-Hindus full rights for adopting children. Until now they could only be ‘guardians’ of adopted children and did not enjoy full parenthood that Hindus had.

Under the new guidelines issued under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000, notified on October 26, the rules significantly increases the “legal rights of both adopted children and the couples who give them a home,” says the Times of India in a report Saturday.

The new rules also simplify the procedures for adoption.

Adoption rules for Hindu couple were governed by the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, and for others the Guardian and Ward Act. Children adopted under GAWA faced several problems including in school and college admissions, inheritance etc.

According to the report, the new amendments would also put foreign parents at par with the Hindu parents. “The changes aim to more sharply define and widen the ambit of the Act, protect juveniles from harsh punishment and provide for better treatment in juvenile homes,” the paper quoted an official as saying.

According to The Hindu, the national newspaper of India, the government of India has announced plans to ease restrictions on adoptions by foreigners.

Chairman of the Central Adoption Resource Agency, J.K. Mittal, told PTI, “We have set up a review committee to go through the guidelines so that the process of adoption in India is simplified.”

The main motivation for reviewing the process is to stop the application of outdated rules to children that may be hurt in the process.

Currently, there are very restrictive rules in place regarding inter-country adoption that date back to the mid-1950s that were relaxed in the mid ‘70s and again recently. The latest restructuring promises to streamline the adoption process.

Officially, a foreigner must take legal guardianship of a child, depart the country and then adopt the child at a later date from home. This process is unsure at best and results in long delays.
Government officials also ensure that the process will not be eased to the extent that it would jeopardize the health or safety of Indian children.

The adoption process in India is considered cumbersome compared to countries like China and Guatemala. Although each of those countries is currently facing more restrictive adoption rules, the process in each is much more predictable.

To adopt from India prospective parents must get a domestic agency to “sponsor” their adoption. They then must work with a local representative as foreigners are not allowed to directly adopt children in any court.

According to UNICEF, of the United Nations, there were 25,700 orphans in India in 2006.

ritish couples are being urged to help save millions of Indian baby girls from lives of abuse and misery.

The Indian government is relaxing its adoption rules to encourage more British and other western couples to reduce the number of orphans living on the streets, and abandoned in squalid and dirty children’s homes throughout the country.

There are more than 11 million abandoned children in India , and ministers want more families – both Indian and British – to offer loving homes.

Under current rules, it takes more than a year for British and other foreign families to successfully adopt an Indian baby, but under new government plans couples will be able to complete the formalities in just 45 days.

The emphasis will be on finding new families for thousands of babies – most of them unwanted girls – dumped in ‘street cots’ attached to childrens homes in India’s major cities.

The government is anxious that infants dumped in homes are given to new families before they are six months old. They fear institutionalisation could starve them of the love and nuturing they need to develop.

The new rules will give new hope to British families who have faced increasing problems adopting overseas. In the last few years Russia, China, Romania and Cambodia have all raised bureaucratic hurdles, and some, like Romania, have suspended foreign adoptions altogether.

India however has unique problems which ministers believe foreign adoption could play a part in solving. Thousands of Indian baby girls are killed at birth by poor mothers who cannot afford the lavish weddings and dowries they would one day be lumbered with, and also by middle-class women under pressure to bear their husband a prized son.

The government has encouraged more ‘street cribs’ to give mothers of unwanted daughters an alternative to ‘female infanticide.’ If it is successful, it will mean even more baby girls being dumped in orphanages, and more to find families for

Officials say they will still give priority to Indian families looking to adopt, but traditional prejudices against adopted children mean too few come forward to help. Each year around 4,000 orphans are adopted, and only three thousand of them are taken in by Indian families.

In some Delhi orphanages, like North Delhi’s ‘Cradle’ home,where around five babies are dumped every week, as many as fifty per cent of unwanted children go to families in Britain , the United States , Spain and Denmark.

Staff at the home say Indian families are often reluctant to take dark skinned babies or children whose complexions are not a good match with their own. The stigma against adoption and infertility is so great that many families adopt a well-matched child and pretend to relatives that it is their own baby.

L.K Mittal, chairman of the Indian government’s Central Adoption Resource Agency, said the new rules, which will come into force in two months’ time, are aimed at making more of India ’s orphans available for adoption, and making easier for British and other western couples to give them loving homes.

“There will be more domestic adoptions, and more foreign adoptions. The rules we have now are too lengthy and cumbersome – it takes a year for a foreigner to take a child from India , but it should be done within a couple of months. Every child needs a home with loving parents.

“Where there’s a threat of institutionalisation [for the child], and there’s a loving foreign family, that’s a better option than the orphanages. We want a loving, caring family for every child.' To adopt an Indian child, couples must be financially secure and must have been together for more than five years. They must be between 30 and 55, with a combined age of less than 90. Single people are eligible but not same-sex couples.

The vetting procedure for Britons adopting in India is the same as if they were adopting within Britain. Potential adoptees first have to undergo a 'Homestudy' assessment by the Department for Education and Skills to check they are suitable parents to adopt.

Once a Home Study Report has been issued, the search begins for a child cleared for adoption in India. When a child is matched with British parents, the Indian government's Central Adoption Resource Agency and the courts must issue 'No Objection Certificates' before the adoption is completed.

Under this system, the Indian end of the process has taken a year to complete. The Indian government is planning to impose short deadlines on each stage of the process to make sure it is completed within 45 days. The new rules will come into force within the next three months.

NEW DELHI: The government plans to relax rules governing inter-country adoptions to make it simpler for foreigners to provide new home to Indian children.

"We have set up a review committee to go through the guidelines so that the process of adoption in India is simplified," Central Adoption Resource Agency Chairman JK Mittal said.

India's adoption laws are very complicated and lengthy and often discourage foreigners from adopting children here, he said.

"There is a need to relax certain rules without hurting the interests of adopted children and that is why we have gone for a review committee," Mittal said.

All inter-country adoptions are governed by a set of guidelines under which no direct adoption of an Indian child by foreigners is allowed in any court. All foreigners, including NRIs, wanting to adopt Indian children have to be sponsored by a licensed adoption agency in their own country that is also permitted to work in India.

Moreover, the paper work in such cases is handled in India only by a government recognised agency. The process includes detailed home study reports of prospective parents that are prepared in their own country and which include police verification, family and social background of applicants, income certificate and health status.

These documents also have to be attested by the Indian consulate, embassy or high commission in the applicant's country.

In 2001, a total of 1,298 Indian children were adopted by foreigners, mainly from Europe, and taken to their respective countries. But the number dropped to 853 in 2006.