By IANS
New Delhi : Talking about the trauma she suffered while bringing home her adopted younger daughter, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury Thursday promised to do “everything possible” to make adoption procedures simpler and faster in the country.
At a two-day annual national meet on adoption organised by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) of the ministry here, Chowdhury said the need of the hour was to make adoption procedures faster, simpler and more transparent so as to encourage more people to adopt children.
“The main pitfall that we face is the lack of transparency. It is a national shame that illegal adoption is rampant in the country. There are so many children who are denied their right of love and a happy childhood because of the loopholes in the laws and in the system,” Chowdhury said.
In an attempt to set things right, she said the ministry is giving its full support to CARA in taking up various steps. For one, CARA has got in touch with all the state governments and has asked them to give a list of state adoption agencies. It is also drawing up a list of the national adoption agencies.
“I urge that all the adoption agencies, at the state and national level, the NGOs and the ministry itself, shed their egos and work together. There must be better linkages and a database must be drawn up so that we know which child is going where,” she said.
Chowdhury said: “With reports of even MPs being involved in trafficking, utmost care must be taken so that nothing of this sort happens under the veil of adoption.”
She also encouraged single parents to come up for adoption and urged people to adopt more children with special needs. “Very little has been done for kids with special needs. They need your love as much as any other child does.”
Compulsory registration of pregnancies, using the scientific method of biometrics to track a child who is given for adoption and an amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act for a smoother adoption procedure are some of the issues being looking into by the ministry and CARA.
CARA chief J.K. Mittal said he has written to chief ministers, urging them to register all adoption agencies in their states.