Explained | The process and eligibility for adopting a child in India

The Supreme Court has issued notice on a petition seeking simplification of the process of adoption. The plea submitted that less than 4,000 children are adopted annually in the country.

A total of 3,559 children were adopted in India between April 2020 and March 2021, as per official adoption data. These included 3,142 adoptions within the country and 417 abroad. In the previous year, 3,745 children were adopted. Taking note of the abysmal adoption rate in the country, the Supreme Court on April 12 admitted a petition seeking to simplify the legal process for the adoption of children in India.

The Supreme Court on April 12 issued a notice to the Centre on a petition filed by an NGO ‘The Temple of Healing’, represented by petitioner Piyush Saxena. In his representation to the court, Mr. Saxena said, “As per the data available in the public domain, there are only 4,000 child adoptions annually but till last year we had three crore orphan children, in the country. There are several infertile couples who are willing to have a child.”

He further submitted before the court that Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System may appoint a few trained “adoption preparers” along the lines of the Tax Preparer Scheme of 2006 to help prospective parents complete the complicated adoption paperwork.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), India has 2.96 crore orphaned or abandoned children. In its annual report 2020-21, the Ministry of Women and Child Development noted that 2.56 lakh children were living in 7,164 child care institutions (CCIs) in the country. Following a Supreme Court directive to States to explore the possibility of reuniting these children in care institutions with their birth families as a precaution against the pandemic, 1.45 lakh children were reunited with their birth families.

Several, however, are still waiting for a secure home and promising future. 

For instance, India recorded the lowest number of cumulative adoptions between 2020 and 2021 (3,559) since 2013, according to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) data. The coronavirus pandemic is regarded as the primary reason for this drop in adoptions in the country between 2019 and 2021. 

A study on estimates of children affected by the pandemic, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in February this year, noted that 19 lakh children were orphaned or lost a caregiver to COVID in India between March 2020 and October 2021. The study defined orphanhood as the death of one or both parents; or the death of one or both custodial grandparents.