KOLKATA: A retired employee of the Airport Authority of India adopted his daughter in 2005, and now she is 18-years-old and studying Bachelor in Arts (BA) in English honours.
His friend and fellow member of the association of adoptive parents would chime in every time a prospective adoptive parent approached their counter at the adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents meet organised by the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department at CD Block in Salt Lake on Saturday.
“I was 43-years-old when we adopted our daughter. We had medical complexities and hence decided to adopt. We had to wait for two years. Nowadays I hear that parents are having to wait three-and-a-half years to get a child,” an adoptive parent told Millennium Post on request to remain anonymous.
The parent further informed that prospective parents often query about the pre-adoption process while after adopting they have queries regarding the best age to disclose to their child about the adoption.
“I had to inform my child when she was three-years-old. It is wise to tell them from a younger age to protect them from the trauma of hearing it in passing,” he said.
On the same line, the state Women and Child Development and Social Welfare minister Shashi Panja also emphasised on the sensitivity of dealing with it. “Tell your child gradually through tales so that they are informed and are not affected when they hear it in passing.
When it comes to the age at which the information should be disclosed, there have been many debates but in the end it’s your prerogative,” she said while talking to the parents during the programme.
The meet, which aims to promote legal adoption so that people can become aware of the legal procedure of adopting a child, is organised every year by the department.
Another goal is to create a scope where the prospective adoptive parents who have been waiting for a long time to adopt a child can have an opportunity to listen to the experiences of the adoptive parents who had already become parents through adoption.
At least 100 adoptive parents were present along with their children. In the last financial year, 157 children were placed in adoption within the country whereas a total 31 children were adopted by the foreign Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) or overseas citizens of India and Non-Residential Indian PAPs.
Furthermore, the minister urged the adoptive parents to be alert of news on any abandoned child found in the hospitals nearby to them. “I urge you to contact us and we will take strict measures,” Panja said.
A senior department official said that every month they ask hospitals — both government and private — for reports on abandoned children. All the government hospitals send the reports but in scattered cases, negligence is found in private hospitals not sending in monthly reports. We take strict action in such cases, an official said.