Journalism of Courage
The Federation of Adoption Agencies (Maharashtra) — a platform of 18 recognised Specialized Adoption Agencies (SAA) in Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur have raised concerns over the adoption placement process.
Sunil Arora, President of the FAA told The Indian Express, “We have grave concerns on the adoption placement process through an online system,” said Arora in a statement issued on August 28.
The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) had released Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children 2015 from August 1.
The new Guidelines provides for adoptions of children through an online portal – Central Adoption Resource Information Guidance System ‘CARINGS’.This system maintains a centralised list of waiting families and children available for adoption.
The major concern is that wait-listed families in order of their registration get to “reserve” a child online, from the details, including photos and medicals of six children “displayed” to them on CARINGS. This selection approach is reduced to an impersonal process, dictated by demand and supply, treating the child as an object to “pick and choose”, Arora pointed out.
As per the new computerised system, prospective adoptive parents will lose out on the continued personalised counseling and handholding support during this most important decision of their life, say coordinators of adoption agencies based in Pune.
There is also concern that this process may have no control on the way confidential information of the child, including photographs will be treated.
This can find its way on social media, websites jeopardising the ‘best interest of the child’. It is “unethical” and “against rights of the child” to be exhibited along with his/her personalised details to prospective parents to choose or reject. Roxanne Kalyanwala, executive director of Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra — that runs a child care centre – said that the online process was a major change. It will take time to get used to the new process. “However we prefer to wait and watch”, she said.
