Krishan Kalra  Mar 13, 2026

Child Adoption System In India – BW Businessworld

India’s adoption system needs major expansion and reform to help millions of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children find secure homes

Recently our family friends – a young couple in their mid-40s – brought home an adopted girl after a long wait of over four years! Both parents and the little three-year-old are blissfully happy. In about two weeks, the kid has become the darling of almost all residents of the condominium where they live and the ‘four-year-wait’ seems well worth it. But, imagine if the annual adoptions in the country could rise to at least three lakhs – just one per cent of the total orphans, abandoned and surrendered (OAS), how many more people could find happiness and fulfillment and how these three lakh children could avoid the dangers of being misled by paedophiles, child molesters, traffickers, organ thieves, child labour exploiters, organised ‘begging contractors’ who often break limbs of innocent kids and other nefarious criminals always lurking around for a chance to make easy money. They can all get a chance to grow up in secure surroundings, full of love and care and hopefully grow up as well-educated young men and women ready to chip in with the nation building process.

Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is a central body charged with the noble cause. It has a very well-defined legal process to ensure that the children and the adoptive parents are a good match that offers a congenial home for the child to grow up in. Besides CARA – that manages cases of children from Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist communities, as per Hindu adoption and maintenance Act 1956; there are two more legislations (i) Juvenile Justice Act 2015 (JJA) and (ii) Guardians and Wards Act 1890.

There is strict compliance of conditions for Hindu aspirant adoptive parents like (a) Men over 18 and of sound mind; if married, with consent of the wife (b) single women of sound mind, unmarried, divorced or widowed. Their elaborate and well-thought-out rules also mention that if the parents already have a male child they can apply for adopting only a girl and if they are already blessed with a girl they can apply for adopting only a male child. There must be a minimum age difference of 21 years between the child adopted and father or mother, whoever is younger. There are restrictions on the children too for coming into the pool of those legally available for adoption. There are also specifics like (a) both parents deceased or of unsound mind or (b) abandoned.

After an online application with all required documents and its approval (registration), a designated social worker visits the parents’ home for a thorough evaluation of the home environment, financial stability and their general suitability for bringing up a child. Particulars of the parents are uploaded on the authority’s website and whenever there is a match, parents are informed – with details of the child – and given 48 hours to accept or decline the offer. After three attempts, the registration gets cancelled.

In case of an acceptance, parents are asked to visit the childcare agency and spend time with the child. The agency files an application in court, the child and the parents must appear before the judge and if satisfied he or she issues a final adoption order so parents may take the child home. Meantime the agency also facilitates a new birth certificate with names of adoptive parents. Post adoption also the agency makes periodic follow-up visits over a period of two years. In case of NRI or foreign parents, JJA manages the case after getting an NOC from CARA.

Even though the official website says, “total process can take six months to two years”, in practice it can be longer as experienced by our friends.

The core issue plaguing our adoption system, which makes the pool ‘ready for adoption and the process inordinately long, is the mandatory evaluation by authorities of each OAS child before they become eligible for adoption. I believe CARA and JJA come into the picture only later. This involves District Child Protection units, Child Welfare Committees and private societies, orphanages etc. involved in the work of looking after destitute children.

There’s lack of clarity about who all are responsible for locating such kids all over the country, freeing those grabbed by anti-social gangs, out of their clutches before even starting the process of checking their antecedents like being ‘legally free for adoption, tracing out any ‘alternate custodians’, surviving relations etc. Police must be involved in all this, even newspaper advertisements are required, social background study has to be done. This is indeed a long-drawn process as our overworked police force all over the country is just not able to prioritise such cases. That is the reason that despite 36,000 waitlisted aspiring parents, there were only 4,515 adoptions.

The number of children available for adoption is very small as there are actually very few properly surrendered one. Most people just leave them in trains and temples, even sell them to the rich childless ones – at times unwittingly to the wrong people with ulterior motives. Many poor villagers are not even aware of legitimate orphanages where children can be handed over without any stigma. Most abandoned or surrendered children are girls due to the curse of dowry in our society, as marrying them almost always drive parents to bankruptcy. On the other hand, sons are seen as protection – especially in law-less areas and also as future bread winners.

So, my dream figure of three lakh sounds like a fairy tale!

To get started with the lofty goal, the government has to create a separate large, dedicated department – something on the lines of that for PwDs (people with disabilities) headed by a Secretary level officer and supported by adequate designated police force for locating OAS children, processing legal formalities, housing them in suitable safe ‘childcare institutions’ (age 6-18) and with specialised adoption agencies (up to the age of six).

The framework is already there but it needs to be scaled up almost 40 times – only for starters – with sufficient empowered staff and infrastructure to house and feed the children. Humungous task but at stake are our 30 million OAS children – the Wealth of our Nation! A task that must not be ignored, especially for meeting our ambitious goal of becoming a ‘developed country’ in the next 21 years. My dream of three lakh annual adoptions is only for starters.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.