There Are 3 Crore Orphans In India, The Tedious Adoption Process Needs To Be Streamlined, Says SC
Citing the massive gap between the processing capacity of Central Adoption Resource Authority and the number of orphans in India, the Supreme Court has said that child adoption process is "very tedious" and that there is an urgent need for the procedures to be "streamlined".
"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 SC A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala said on Friday.
Only 4,000 adoption in a year in India
The bench also asked Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, to file a response to a PIL detailing steps to streamline the process of adoption of children in the country.
The court asked Nataraj to consider the suggestions of the PIL petitioner "The Temple of Healing" and file a response about the steps taken to streamline the process.
On April 11, the top court had 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.
Simplify adoption process
It had issued notice to the Centre after Piyush 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.
Saxena had submitted that as per the data available in the public domain there are only 4,000 child adoptions annually but till last year there were three crore orphaned children in the country. There are several infertile couples who are willing to have a child, he added.
"Last year, during the pandemic the ministry issued a notification that relaxed the norms but this could be done on a regular basis," he said.
Saxena further submitted that there is also an anomaly on the legislature front as adoption is being governed by the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act of 1956, whose nodal ministry is the Ministry of Law and Justice, while the aspects of orphans are dealt with by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
COVID-19 made more children orphans?
"The Ministry of Women and Child Development asked me for a detailed written submission which I gave them last March but till now no action has been taken. They don't want any action to be taken as they worry that children may go into the wrong hands", he had said.
In February, a Lancet article had said that 19 lakh children experienced orphanhood due to COVID-19 in India during the first 20 months of the pandemic.
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