Old systems hamper digital adoptions

Hundreds of orphaned and abandoned children in India who could have gone on to live happy lives with new parents rarely get a chance. Many of them fall into wrong hands, accredited social workers who counsel couples say. They say there are enough kids — from newborns to seven-year-olds — waiting to enter new homes.

But the government’s effort to encourage adoption suffers as child trafficking hides eligible children from the authorities’ view. The waiting list for “prospective adoptive parents” (PAPs) — a term used by the women and child development (WCD) ministry — becomes longer and longer since the children are invisible. Eventually, exhausted couples drop out.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara), under the WCD ministry, is the only government agency via which people can adopt kids in the second-most populated country. Any other adoption channel would be a racket.

The Cara and its parent ministry have been trying to ease the adoption process. The ministry in January 2017 released new rules that, among other applicant-friendly steps, digitised the entire process from filing application to uploading documents to legal verification in a flowchart-like format.

But the edges are still rough. For example, the Cara website accepts documents like income-tax return and permanent account number on a single lowest-resolution PDF (portable document format) file whose size should not exceed a few kilobytes. When even a techie would find it tough to combine and compress a 10-page-long PDF file to meet the Cara’s criteria, the average applicant will be at sea. Technology can only do so much. It is the multi-layered machine comprising social workers, police, government officials and legal professionals that needs regular oiling.

For instance, a social worker might send a PAP verification request to the police, but the police may sit on it for a long time. Or an adoption agency may not update child availability due to reasons best known to it.

In a nutshell, the adoption process goes like this: First, a couple or any other applicant opens an account on the Cara website. Second, they upload identity and income documents, mention the preferred child’s gender and location (maximum of three states in order of preference). Third, they choose an accredited agency for a “home study” report, after which a social worker meets the PAPs and files a report to the Cara. Fourth, the Cara clears the file and the applicants are put on a “waiting list”. And finally, the PAPs get a child either after a few months or even years.

The applicants can see their waiting list by login into the Cara website. It usually ranges from 1 to 700. Some states have long waiting list while in others the applicants may see their number fall fast, depending on availability of children. Applicants can opt for a maximum of three states.

But people who have adopted kids say anything could go wrong.

“Adoption agencies must renew their licence regularly, but some don’t. In case an agency conducts the home study report and the Cara clears the file, and later that agency doesn’t renew its licence to operate, we don’t know what would happen to the application. There is no clarity,” a Bangalore-based working mother of an adopted girl says. She declined to be named citing privacy concern.

The Cara also suffers from lack of coherence in legal matters. It cannot override states on issuing birth certificates. PAPs have suggested that the Cara must be given more power.

My daughter was adopted from a different state. We asked for a birth certificate from there but a local court declined. The Cara says it cannot do anything. These days nursery schools ask for birth certificate. I don’t know how I will send my child to school without that document,” the woman says.

It’s not only bureaucratic bottlenecks but also social attitudes that undermine the Cara’s effort to give new families to eligible kids.

“Some couples want infants only from a certain religion,” home study specialist Akshita of accredited adoption agency SOS Sopan in south Delhi says. “Although single and divorced women can easily adopt kids, their relatives might make them uncomfortable,” she says. “Even couples who decide to go for adoption may face resistance from conservative family members.”

A south Delhi-based PAP, who also declined to be named on privacy grounds, told this newspaper that one of her biggest concerns was not getting an honest representation of the child from adoption agencies. The Bangalore woman also said a lot of adoption agencies don’t update the latest details of children including their photos and health conditions, which could mislead prospective parents.

“Once a PAP is called to meet a child, the person may be compelled to adopt the kid because rejection will refresh the PAP’s waiting list,” the Bangalore woman says. A refreshed waiting list will put the PAP behind new applicants even if the PAP had registered first.

For instance, a PAP from Mumbai who has been called to Jaipur to meet a kid may find out that the child has a disease that was not disclosed by the adoption agency, or the child’s photo uploaded by the agency was different.

Despite the shortcomings, the Cara’s latest data on its website shows it helped parents adopt over 3,600 children (3,210 in India and 527 inter-country) between April 2015 and March 2016.

Another Delhi-based married woman showed this newspaper her waiting list on the Cara website — she had applied for a girl child in October 2016 from (in order of preference) Meghalaya, or Himachal Pradesh, or Uttarakhand.

Though her waiting list in Meghalaya has fallen from over 500 to 300 in the past six months, her position in the other two states has been hovering around 500.

“This could mean there are many eligible kids waiting to be adopted in the north-eastern state,” the woman says, asking not to be identified.

The Cara’s data shows the success rate of adoption is increasing in India, but adoption counsellors say PAPs prefer girls than boys — so one gender could be getting a higher success rate.

“Couples tend to think that a boy who is five years old is harder to handle than a girl of the same age,” a social worker in south Delhi who is handling three active cases of child adoption says.

The Bengaluru woman, who adopted a girl, says many older boys (above five years) remain unpicked at orphanages.

If prospective adoptive parents don’t change their mindset toward the boy child, the Cara’s efforts may go in vain.