International adoptions in Pune take a dip

Thirty-three years ago, NRI couple Vidya and Vinay Damle had to wait for ten days before they were given the guardianship of their daughter Mousami. After two months, the couple returned to Canada with the newest member of their family.

In the same year (1979), 64 children were adopted by foreign couples and NRI families from Pune-based adoption agency SOFOSH (Society of Friends of Sassoon Hospital). However, the same number stood at 5 last year. In 2010 too, just 5 children were adopted by foreign couples, while the number has slightly improved to 8 so far this year.

Officials at SOFOSH say that this a trend observed at most adoption agencies across the state where number of foreign couples adopting children has trickled down dramatically over the years.

Madhuri Abhyankar, director of SOFOSH, said while a scientific study into causes for the decline needs to be conducted, some reasons for this trend could be longer wait lists for children, changing norms and paperwork.

“The norms and guidelines of inter-country adoption are changing. So according to that, newer paperwork is involved. This means that more time is consumed in getting formalities to be completed,” she said.

“Besides, generally the wait lists for children is longer these days and it could easily take 6 months or more for actual adoption to take place. Adoption by Indian couples has gone up considerably and maybe that’s why fewer children are left to place in foreign countries,” she added.

Narendra Kharale, managing trustee of Renuka Mahajan Trust, said that at his centre too it was true that foreign adoptions had trickled down to barely a handful of cases over the last few years.

“In 2000, we received permission for foreign adoptions and initially it went very well. But in the last few years, we have done not more than 3-4 such adoptions annually and focus on Indian ones instead,” Kharale said.

“According to central agency’s rule, only 20% babies at the centre can be under inter-country adoptions. This means that if a centre has 100 babies, only 20 can be placed in foreign countries. Also, only children who have not been identified or in simple words selected by Indian families can be placed for inter-country adoptions,” Kharale added.

He said that since most centres have fewer babies for adoptions compared to earlier, the number of kids to be placed in foreign countries after giving preference to Indian families is too small. “At our centre, we have just 27 children, so we can’t place more than 5 babies under inter-country adoptions, but the central agency has referred 10 foreign couples to us. So, we have put them on wait list and they will probably to do that for several months or get the case transferred to another centre. A positive aspect of foreign adoptions is that children with medical problems also get accepted, and so should be promoted,” added Kharale.