Lakhs of children waiting to be adopted but it takes 3-4 years to adopt single child in India: SC
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday emphasised that the child adoption process in India needs to be streamlined as there are three-to-four years waiting period under the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to adopt a single child while there are "lakhs and lakhs of orphan children waiting to be adopted".
The top court had earlier also termed the process as "very tedious" and said that there is an urgent need for the procedures to be "streamlined".
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna, and JB Pardiwala told Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, "There are a lot of young couples waiting to adopt the child but the process is so tedious that it takes three to four years to get a single child to be adopted through the CARA. Can you imagine a three to four years period to adopt a child in India? It should be made simpler. There are lakhs and lakhs of orphan children waiting to be adopted".
Nataraj said that the government is seized of the issue and sought six weeks to come up with a reply to a plea filed by an NGO seeking to simplify the process of child adoption in the country.
The bench asked Nataraj to ask someone responsible from the Ministry of Child Development to hold a meeting and look into the suggestions of the NGO 'The Temple of Healing' and prepare a report to be filed in the top court.
It asked Piyush Saxena, secretary of the NGO, who appeared in person to share his petition to the ASG and give his suggestions to the officials in the ministry on how to make the adoption process simpler.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing in October.
It had asked Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, to file its response to a PIL detailing steps to streamline the process of adoption of children in the country.
"The reason we have issued notice on the PIL is that the process of child adoption is very tedious in India. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has an annual capacity of 2,000 adoptions which has now increased to 4,000. There are three crore children who are orphans in this country. There is an urgent need for the process to be streamlined," the top court had observed.
The court has asked the Centre to consider the suggestions of the PIL petitioner and file a response about the steps taken to streamline the process.
The apex court had said it was earlier apprehensive about the intention of the NGO but when it came to know about Piyush Saxena, appearing for the NGO and who has left his job in a big corporate firm to pursue the cause, it had issued notice.
On April 11, the top court agreed to hear the plea seeking to simplify the legal process for child adoption in India, saying only 4,000 adoptions take place annually in the country.
It had issued notice to the Centre after Saxena, appearing for the NGO, said he had made several representations to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for simplifying the process of child adoption but nothing has happened till now.
