New adoption guidelines: Bombay HC asks CARA to look into grievances in petitions

The Bombay High Court Tuesday asked the Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA) to look into the grievances of adoption agencies and adoptive parents regarding its new guidelines.

A division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice Revati Mohite-Dere also urged CARA to look into how the new guidelines had made the adoption process completely online, which might pose a problem for several adoptive parents considering not everyone in the country was “computer literate”.The bench was hearing two petitions — one filed by an adoptive parent and the other by Federation of Adoption Agencies in Maharashtra — that want CARA to reconsider the new policy. Several adoption agencies also made representations and listed their grievances.

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These agencies submitted that CARA’s decision to take away most of their responsibilities had reduced them to just a place to house abandoned or orphaned children. They said this would have major repercussions in facilitating adoptions. “Recently, a couple came to our agency seeking to adopt a male child who would be able to look after their biological son who was autistic. Another couple came looking for a young child. Both parents were illiterate and the man had come drunk. How can the online system check such cases,” asked Prajakta Kulkarni, the founder of Snehankur, an adoption agency in Ahmednagar.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com