Kabir Piyush Varkey is a student of development with a strong interest in understanding people, society, and the systems that shape their lives. Currently, he works as a consultant at an environmental services firm. For his master’s thesis he researched about the child adoption landscape in India and how the adoptive community of Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) and Adoptive Parents (APs) navigate the waiting stage of the adoption process, offering insights beyond the laws, regulation and process.

Waiting is an element in the journey of child adoption that is often overlooked due to a lack of understanding of it. It can range anywhere from 2 to 4 years, depending on the preference, adoptive agency, and seniority. To understand its complexity, one can view adoption as a layered institution that evolves in response to historical, cultural, and developmental needs. A surface-level understanding of child adoption is common across all legal structures, however, a focus on the sheer experiences during the waiting stage for potential parents or Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs), as they are categorised legally, is scarce, offering nuance and understanding of why it differs from other waiting stages. A major element of “waiting” stands out because of the uniqueness of its nature. It goes beyond control, decision-making and influence and is more a surrender to the system and protocols in place, which have a direct impact on the anticipating (potential) parents.

Hence, to understand this, I opted for a qualitative approach to answer the question: what are the “waiting” stage experiences of Prospective and Adoptive Parents? With emphasis on what factors affect adoption, and how couples and individuals navigate the waiting stage? The study is a pan-India study, comprising 13 in-depth interviews primarily conducted with the urban population who hold steady, full-time jobs. Recruitment of participants was facilitated by the head of an NGO based in Bengaluru, offering counselling sessions to PAPs and APs.

Findings show that adoption is enabled by cooperative workplaces offering flexibility and recognition of the situation’s uniqueness, routines that help manage long-term waiting by serving as a distraction, choosing a supportive Specialized Adoptive Agency (SAA) that consults and responds to queries, and connecting with adoptive parents for reflexivity and practical guidance. Ultimately, familial support and friend circles provide comfort and reassurance that help individuals and couples endure the waiting period.

His research Waiting to Belong: Experiences of Adoptive Parents (APs) and Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) navigating child adoption in India can be downloaded above.