The cost of adoption

A large green inflated doll dominates the drawing room of the Sawants in Dombivli, Mumbai. There’s also an assortment of toys, from cricket bat to building blocks.

Surrounded by this scatter pattern of toys is Ameya, who is little over a year old. It is likely that Ameya gets reprimanded at times for the mess, but for now, his parents are just happy that their house feels full. After all, it’s taken a year for Ameya to come home to them.

“We got married in 2007. For nearly three years we tried conceiving, going in for fertility treatments,” says Shailesh Sawant, an accountant, “My elder sister adopted a baby after 14 years of marriage. We felt that instead of waiting, we should go in for adoption right away.” But adoption was not easy. Shailesh’s salary then was Rs15,000 per month — much less than the Rs25,000/month limit set by Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (IAPA), the agency the Sawants had approached.“We need to ensure the baby is provided for,” says Savita Nagpurkar, who works with IAPA. “While Central Adoption Resource Authority (the central body for adoption) hasn’t set any limits regarding income, agencies in Mumbai agree that the couple should earn at least Rs25,000 per month.”Nagpurkar says that there are several costs involved — adoption agency fees, lawyer fees and a life insurance policy for the baby with a one-time premium payment of Rs1.5 lakh. “We need to ensure the couple can manage day-to-day costs after spending this amount,” says Nagpurkar.

In the Sawants’ case, the couple nearly depleted savings on fertility treatments. But the fact that there was an adopted baby in the family helped. Shailesh’s parents gave in writing that they provide for 60% of the household expenses. This helped fulfill the income criteria. Shailesh still had to sell shares to pay for the life insurance policy.

“We try our level best to help the couple meet the income criteria,” says Nagpurkar. “We ask them to list all assets they may have, such as village land, and whether they receive any financial support from the family. However, some couples back out when they realise the costs involved.” If the couple is sincere, IAPA is ready to discount its fees and in a recent case, the lawyer was so impressed by the couple, s/he waived the fees.

While the rules of adoption remain the same regardless of what a couple earns, agencies are more vigilant while assessing applications from low-income brackets, said Nagpurkar. “For instance, we have to carefully see the condition of the house. If it is bad then the family will have to spend on repairs. Can they afford the repairs and daily expenses? We also visit the workplace and talk to their bosses to see how sincere the applicant is, and how secure his job is,” she says. Couples who are truly motivated to be parents often take extraordinary steps. The Jagdale family, for instance, shifted out of their chawl in Dharavi and took up a flat in Sion’s Sardar Nagar.

“Initially, I was shocked that the Jagdales’ had been registered since their income was quite low, and they lived in Dharavi,” says Nagpurkar. “We don’t want to give parents false hope.” But Sneha Jagdale was persistent. Since her husband was busy with work at the Sion hospital where he works as a helper, it was Sneha who regularly followed up with IAPA, and slowly mastered things like taking appointments, writing official letters, and getting recommendations that are crucial in the application process.

Finally, they realised that the only criteria left was a better house and decided to shift homes, spending nearly Rs10 lakh. “We cannot permit the adopted child to grow up in a slum, because even if the parents can provide for the child, there is no control on the environment,” says Nagpurkar. “Their decision to move to a new home showed their willingness to make shifts in their lives for the baby.” More than two years after Sneha first walked into the IAPA office, the Jagdales finally got a baby boy. “IAPA was not the only place I visited,” says Sneha.

“A majority of the orphanages turned me down. One orphanage told me I couldn’t adopt a baby since I have not completed Std 12. I cried when I came out of the office. But what’s more important is that I remained stubborn. If you are determined then God will take care of things,” she added.

(Names withheld on request)