Children Fit For Adoption Will Not Have To Wait Now If...: Government

Smriti Irani also said that more girls are being adopted in the country since the last three years and gave figures for the same.

A child will not have to get adopted if there are more parents who are ready to do the procedure, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani told the Rajya Sabha, underlining that more girl children are being adopted in India in the last three years against boys.

Replying to the supplementaries during question hour, the minister said the average time taken to adopt a child through court processes was so lengthy that a minimum of two years was needed by adoptive parents in terms of waiting and to reduce the time gap the ministry has proposed the amendment in the law, as in many cases it took up to 3.5 years.

"On September 23 this year, we notified the new regulation as there were close to 900 cases pending in states in our high courts. After the states acted on the new resolution, over 580 children have already been adopted, including children who are in the 'hard to place' category in older age groups who have never been adopted before," she told the house.

Ms Irani said there are children who are older and are made available to our NRI diaspora and OCI card holders.