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SC glare on child adoption flaws

Submitted by Kerry on Sat, 2011-04-23 02:25.

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April 22, 2011 / telegraphindia.com

New Delhi, April 22: The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and the government-run Central Adoption Resource Agency (Cara) on a PIL seeking an immediate revamp of the country’s adoption regime.

Six NGOs, including Calcutta’s Society for Indian Children’s Welfare, have filed the petition claiming the adoption process is plagued by corruption, red tape, delays, government interference and Cara’s failure to discharge its obligations.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia issued the notices yesterday.

Adoption statistics from the Cara website show a decline in legal adoptions in the past decade, though the demand for babies has only grown, the NGOs pointed out to bolster their claim that the agency wasn’t functioning properly. Cara also has not finalised adoption guidelines that have been in “draft” form since 2006.

The NGOs have also accused the government of discriminating between private-run bodies, which provide primary care to such children, and state-run shishu grihas as far as grant and renewal of licences are concerned.

While Cara has been indifferent to the functioning of shishu grihas despite repeated complaints of corruption and high mortality rates, allegedly arising out of apathy and gross negligence, private-run organisations and institutions working in the area are subjected to strict, and often meaningless, controls, the PIL said.

Citing another instance of the alleged bias, the NGOs said an inordinate number of abandoned children sent to private agencies by child welfare committees — government panels in districts that decide the fate of homeless children — are disabled, while the shishu grihas “choose” kids who will be placed in their care.

Cara itself has often not filled up the vacancies of its chairperson and secretary on time and failed to file mandatory information reports on several occasions with the Registrar of Societies, the NGOs have said.

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Follow-up to these findings...

Submitted by Kerry on Sun, 2011-04-24 20:28.

another news-source wrote a same-but-different report about India's adoption program: 

Child adoption process in the country came under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny on Thursday with the court demanding an explanation from the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the government’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) on the charge that adoption of babies has become nothing more than a “commercial transaction” involving private placement agencies.  

A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia, issued notices to the government and CARA to explain why adopting parents are made to wait for months, entangled in “reams of red-tape”, and foreign parents find it easier to adopt than their Indian counterparts.  

The CARA has “failed on every count” to monitor and regulate placement agencies, contends the petition filed by 2011 Padma Shri winner Nomita Chandy’s adoption agency Ashraya.  

“Total apathy and corruption of the respondents (ministry and CARA) has led to the adoption process being reduced to a farce, and empowering opaque state-run children’s homes and criminal private individuals to play with the lives of adoptable children and adopting parents, very often reducing the solemn process of adoption to a commercial transaction involving little babies,” stated the petition argued by senior advocate K K Venugopal.

[From:  Adoption a commercial deal in India: Plea in SC, April 22, 2011 ]

But a reminder to all the infertile (and those who are unable to be approved for an adoption plan) who still want babies, (and not older troubled adoptable children "orphans"), don't fret... now that India has re-vamped it's surrogacy progams, the baby-trade business - the one that made India so popular among foreign adopters - will resume big foreign trade.  Nice to know clever (cheaper) outsourcing opportunities still exist in "desperate" third world regions, isn't it?

Gotta LOVE the demanding public....and the hotels foreign travelers - buying a baby - get to stay in, as they endure a few days in India. 

 See: Hotel Aurora Towers in Pune Camp, here's a visual of the Four Season's hotel....

...and more about the length of stay in a foreign country, as only an American adopter (baby-buyer) can explain, when she writes,  "OF COURSE we stayed at the most expensive and glamorous hotels in the countries we adopted from...  and it cost a pittance of what it does in America.

...and let's remember the power - and credibility -  American's have when they spend their (good?) American dollar in another country.

Where the real power is...

Submitted by Teddy on Sun, 2011-04-24 22:34.

"...and let's remember the power - and credibility -  American's have when they spend their (good?) American dollar in another country."

In Korea we were among a people who spoke English, but unless we had babies with us, we blended in with the tourists who spent more money than we did.  I would like to ask you how we exuded ANY "credibility?"  They didn't care who we were, as long as we DID spend money.  Power, I would agree with, but not credibility, because we were there to "bargain" down the prices just like the others from the MANY countries who visit Korea. 

And credibility in Guatemala, among the others who live there because it's cheaper; others who are doing mission trips to "help" Guatemala; and tourists seeking to see the Mayan sights, is not expected... just the power of the money we spend.

Then we have VietNam where we spent money only where the SW's took us; ate where they recommended; and were expected to bring in thousands of dollars of WalMart gifts to appease the workers who never even saw most of it.  The "power" lay with those who spoke the language, not we who only did as we were told because we "wanted our babies."

The credibility of adoptions was not seen ANYWHERE... only power, that was directed by the overseas workers.

Teddy

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