Over 16,000 prospective parents waiting to adopt a child for past 3 years: Official data

New Delhi: More than 16,000 prospective parents have been waiting for over three years to adopt a child, with officials attributing the slowdown to availability of fewer children who are legally free for adoption.

According to data shared by officials of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) in response to an RTI filed by PTI, there are 28,501 prospective parents whose home study reports have been approved and are in queue for adopting a child.

Out of them, 16,155 prospective parents whose home study reports have been approved three years ago are still waiting in queue for adoption, according to the data.

As of June 28, there are 3,596 children legally free for adoption, including 1,380 with special needs.

"The average waiting period for adoption is 2-2.5 years and then there are very few children who are legally free for adoption, making it further difficult for prospective parents to find children for adoption," a senior official said.

According to official data, there are 2,971 children living in specialised adoption agencies who fall under the category of being not adoptable while there are a total of nearly 7,000 children in the specialised adoption centre.

The children falling under the non-adoptable category are those children whose biological parents have not given consent for them to be put for adoption but they are put in child care homes as the parents are unable to support and take care of their child. If a child is over five years of age, consent from them is also needed before putting them up for adoption, another official explained.

In the last Parliament session, a parliamentary panel has recommended that the adoption process in the country be simplified and stressed the need for a close relook at various regulations guiding the procedure of adoption.

Also, last year the government amended the Juvenile Justice Act under which increased powers and responsibilities were given to district magistrates to speed up the adoption processes in the country.

Earlier, adoption processes were under the purview of courts.

Child rights experts, however, believe that more is required than just simplifying the process.

Kumar Shailabh, co-director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, said adoptions are a very tricky process and prior to amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act there was a very firm process involving courts.

Executive Director of NGO Centre for Advocacy and Research Akhila Sivadas said the issue is not just about simplifying the procedure, it is also about how governments deliver or implement such programmes.