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Adoption in India 1
Adoption in India - the past, present and the future trends
Saras Bhaskara, Rene Hoksbergena , Anneloes van Baara , Subasini Mothiramb ,
and Jan ter Laaka
aUtrecht Universiteit, The Netherlands
bJBAS College for Women, Chennai, India.
Address for correspondence:
Saraswathi Bhaskar
Professional Counseling Services,
Menangudy Hospital (P) Ltd.,
19/1, 1st Avenue, Shastri Nagar, Adyar,
Chennai – 600 097. India
E mail: therapist.saras@gmail.com
Adoption in India 2
Abstract
Adoption as a construction of a family has drawn worldwide research since three decades.
India as one of the ancient countries in the Asian continent has gone through major changes
in the field of adoption. From an informally adopting male child for performing last rites after
the death of the adopted parents, India has shown progressive changes. During the social
reform in the 1950’s, India focused on finding home for abandoned, destitute, illegitimate and
surrendered children. These children were institutionalized and eventually placed for
domestic and inter-country adoption. The domestic adoption in India gained its momentum
only in late 1980’s. Since then, important changes have happened in the field of adoption. In
this phenomenological approach, we used interviews in conjunction with review of literature
and books on adoption. After a brief historical perspective from Indian and Western part, we
focused on three areas in this field. 1. Development of policies and legal guidelines in India
and its impact on adoption as an organized sector, 2. Adoption scenario in South India, and 3.
Current challenges and future trends of domestic adoption.
Keywords: Child welfare, domestic adoption, inter- country adoption, Indian adoption policy
Adoption in India 3
Adoption of children in India
“Adoption is the establishment of a parent-child relationship through a legal and social
process other than the birth process. It is a process by which a child of one set of parents
becomes the child of another set of parents or parent (Ananthalakshmi, Sampoorna, Mushtaq,
Sheelajayanthi, & Charulatha, 2001). Indian adoption policies are sculpted, by several years
of ongoing efforts by social reform lobbyists and child welfare organizations. This is evident
from the laws and policies set forth by the Government of India. A more recent policy in the
Chapter IV of the Juvenile Justice Act of 2000 implemented the concept of secular adoption
whereby, without any reference to the community or religious persuasions of the parents or
the child concerned, a right appears to be granted to all citizens to adopt, and all children to
be adopted. While this was a positive change, this concept still did not give the legal and
legitimate status to the child equal to that of a biological, legitimate child. Later, the Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act of 2006) cleared the issue, where the adoption
was defined as the process through which the adopted child is permanently separated from
the biological parents and becomes the legitimate child of the adoptive parents with all rights,
privileges and responsibilities that are attached to the relationship. This act introduced the
expression child in need of care and protection. Through this paper, our purpose is to address
the past, present, and the future of adoption in India. For that, one should first understand
more about the historical perspective of Indian adoption.
Historical perspective of Indian adoption
In India, adoption has been practiced for thousands of years. Hinduism being the major
religion practiced in India, epics and history has records of saints and royals who were
adopted and who did adopt. Ramayana and Mahabharata are the two such great epics of
Hinduism which bear references to adoption. Historically, where a lack of male offspring
Adoption in India 4
occurred, couples went in for adopting a male child to designate him as lawful heir.
According to Hindu tradition, sons are crucial and a dead parent’s soul can only attain heaven
if that person has a son to light the funeral pyre, and salvation can be achieved through sons
who offer ancestral worship (Vlassof, 1990). To understand more, a brief narration on
adoption practices of two old civilizations in the history of human kind is compared in the
following section to find out the reasons for adoption.
Indian and Roman culture in adoption practice
In early times, religion and scripture played a significant role in Indian and Roman culture.
Thus, the act of adoption was adult centric and patriarchal, the male child of the kin
becoming the beneficiary (Nilima Mehta, personal communication, Oct 31, 2009). Most
traditional adoptions in India were a private arrangement between the adults involved. They
were identified as kinship adoption happening within the extended family (Mahtani, 1994). In
the Roman culture, a father adopted a son to perpetuate his name and to have someone to
receive his inheritance (Parrish, 1982). Once adopted, the son’s relationship to his past life
was severed and his debts were canceled. While the objectives of ancient adoption seemed to
be focused on performing last rites, kinship, and property interest, India began to consider the
Western rationale for adoption from the social perspectives.
Social changes in Indian adoption
Children who became orphans due to abandonment, poverty and wars created a
reason for the authorities to look into their wellbeing. Initially such children were
automatically included into their families by the next kin, from either side of the family.
Andal Damodaran (personal communication, Dec 21, 2009) stated that when there were no
relatives to care for these children, giving them up for adoption was considered to be the next
best choice. In this background, traditional adoption, which emerged as personal and family
interest, moved towards child welfare reform. This transformation of the children’s welfare
Adoption in India 5
created a pathway to Indians adopting unrelated children during the 1920’s. Because there
was no awareness about documentation, the number of unrelated children being adopted
during this time is not available (Nilima Mehta, personal communication, October 31, 2009).
Adoption laws in India
Adoption polices and social reformation could have evolved due to the fact that India
during those times was ruled by the British. The first Children’s Act was enacted in the
Madras and Bombay Presidencies in 1920, giving the state the responsibility to look after
destitute and neglected children (Bhargava, 2005). The main purpose of drafting this
legislation was to provide care and protection to children. Further reforms that accompanied
Independent India since 1947 brought about changes in the social legislation and policies.
These changes also had a positive impact on family policies concerning children’s well being
(Apparao, 1997).
Emergence of inter-country adoption
Before 1970 not many Indians wanted to adopt an unrelated, child whose parentage
was unknown. The parents who adopted kept it as a family secret due to the social stigma
involved in barrenness and adopting an unrelated child. (Mahtani, 1994). This prejudice and
social stigma in the Indian family and social system created an opportunity for inter-country
adoption to gain momentum in the 1960’s. Financial affordability by foreign adoptive parents
made inter-country adoption an attractive proposal to the Indian adoption agencies. Absence
of a uniform law in India and caste prejudices made inter-country adoption more popular than
domestic adoption (Nilima Mehta, personal communication, October 31 2009). For nearly
two decades from the 1960’s to the mid 1980’s there was a progressive increase in inter-
country adoptions and they were not reliably documented (Hoksbergen, 1986).
Structuring of inter-country adoption policies in India
Adoption in India 6
The Hague convention of 1993 operating through a system of national Central
Authorities reinforced the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 21). This
convention was fruitful for creating international laws in protection of children and their
families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad.
India signed this Hague convention on inter-country adoption in 2003 and ratified the same
with a view to strengthening International Cooperation and Protection of Indian Children
placed in inter-country adoption (Bhargava, 2006).
To streamline the process of inter-country adoption, the Center Adoption Resource
Agency (CARA) was formed in India in 1986. The primary role of CARA is to monitor and
regulate the entire adoption process (Ananthalakshmi, et al., 2001). The guidelines developed
by CARA for inter-country adoption has led to more transparency. A scrutinizing body was
identified for every region to assist the court in determining that ‘sufficient opportunity’ was
given to every child to find a home within India. This has lead to an association of placement
agencies in each region called the Voluntary Coordinating Agency (VCA). The name has
since then changed to Adoption Coordinating Agency (ACA). The increase in domestic
adoption and decrease in inter-country adoption has been significant in the last two decades.
Current changes and attitudes towards domestic adoption
The attitude towards adoption in India has changed significantly in two decades.
Prospective adoptive parents are beginning to understand the legal and social processes of
adoption and recognize the need to go through organized child welfare organizations. It is
interesting to note that in the last few years, children coming into institutions, either in the
form of abandonment or surrendering has decreased considerably. This is caused by Family
Planning and officiating Medical Termination of Pregnancy. Education, globalization and
contemporary thoughts have brought about attitudinal changes in a broader perspective.
Adoption in India 7
In rural parts of Tamil Nadu at least, the girl child remains a casualty. Interestingly
enough, the records of ICCW show that between 2001-2009, of all domestic adopted
children, 78% were female children, and 22% male children. This clearly indicates that the
female children are still being abandoned or surrendered more often than the male children.
Prospective parents with high education and a higher economic status are self assured
to adopt girl children and they do not perceive a girl child to be an economic burden (Andal
Damodaran, personal communication, 21 Dec, 2009). On the contrary, the researcher finds
that some families in certain region with better economic status still consider raising a girl
child as a burden because they do not want to spend money for her marriage, and do not want
to deal with teenage love interests. The conservative belief is still present in certain regions
that a male child could be an investment.
Governmental incentives
In 1992, the Government of Tamil Nadu introduced a scheme called ‘cradle baby
scheme’, where child welfare organizations and major Government Hospitals place a crib
outside at the door of their premises for children to be ‘given up’. This initiative was started
to bring down the alarming number of female infanticide. The ‘cradle baby scheme’ has
brought down the number of female infanticide in some extreme rural areas of Tamil Nadu.
This also seems to be a factor for the increase in the number of female children “surrendered”
(Sheelajayanthi, personal communication, Dec 12, 2009).
Challenges in domestic adoption
Although state approved agencies are providing adoption, the fact is that private adoptions
are still taking place in some hospitals through agents and with unorganized sectors.
Most of the times, adoption agencies are perceived to be “money makers” and so they
are constantly put under “scanner’ by the whistleblowers.
Adoption in India 8
There is a lack of consistent and complete data in some states which makes it difficult
to conduct research studies.
If and when there is a budget downturn, many of the agencies who are normally
responsible for collecting data may find it difficult to continue their work.
Contrary to the Western countries, Indian culture does not encourage “open
adoption”. Because India follows “closed adoption”, confidentiality about the birth
parent/s is not disclosed. As of today, it is observed both in rural and some families in
urban areas, adoptive parents are also not comfortable telling their children about the
adoption status (Sheelajayanthi, personal communication, Dec 11, 2009). If a child
gathered this information from others, the trust could become a major issue in parent-
child relationship.
Single parent adoptions are legal, yet there is no study or evidence of any increase in
single parents who have adopted children. There are no data available on the success
rate of single parent adoption.
Clinical experience of the author is that over indulgence and over protectiveness are two
phenomena that are common in adoptive parenting. They still consider that, these children
who have arrived due to special circumstances require special ways of handling which may
be different from biological child rearing practices.
Future of domestic adoption
Family courts will have to move towards ‘child friendly’ policies to complete the
adoption process and avoid time lapse. The Judicial Academy will have to give periodical
training to the District Court Judges on sensitive handling of adoption cases (Sheelajayanthi,
personal communication Dec 11, 2009). NGO’s and Child Welfare Agencies need to give
necessary guidance to raise children with special needs.
Adoption in India 9
Since same sex couple adoption is gaining momentum, very soon policies need to be
put in place. As of now, Indian Government is legalizing same sex marriage in some States
(Nilima Mehta, personal communication, 31 Oct, 2009). With increased awareness of
psychological implication in the adoption process, we may forecast that training and
education for adoption counseling competence will be a field that will gain much more
attention in the next decade.
Conclusion: This study gives information on adoption as a construction of family in South
India. Adoption agencies are now functioning as organized sectors closely monitored by the
state and central government. Domestic adoption has gained its momentum once the
government of India got involved in monitoring and regulating inter-country adoption laws.
Overall number of children being abandoned or surrendered has considerably decreased due
to legal medical termination of pregnancy officiated by the Family Planning of India, and the
improvement of the Indian economy.
Adoption is a personal choice; adoptive parents need help with queries regarding parenting,
families, dealing with community and school. Post adoption counseling in the form of
aftercare is currently available but is offered to the parents only on request. It is
recommended that post adoption counseling is mandated to assist and guide parents with the
change in their roles and coping with parenthood. Another important component is that the
mental health community needs to be sensitized about adoption process and the psychological
impact of couple who are childless and who go through adoption. Based on the current trend,
it may be implied that there will come a need in future to introduce adoption therapy training.
Adoption in India 10
References
Ananthalakshmi, Sampoorna, G. L., Mushtaq, Ayesha., Jayanthi, Sheela., Charulatha.,
(2001). Child Adoption and Thereafter – A Psycho Analytical Study. Chennai, India:
ICCW.
Apparao, H. (1997). International adoption of children. The Indian scene. International
Journal of Behavioural Development, 20, 3-16
Bhargava, V. (2005). Adoption in India – Policies and Experiences. New Delhi: Sage
Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Hoksbergen, R.A.C. & Gokhale (Eds., 1986). Adoption in worldwide perspective. A review of
programs, policies and legislation in 14 countries. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Mahtani, Rajshree (1994). “A Study of the 3 year old Publicity Campaign implemented
by the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare
(Documentation and Assessment of Impact)”, Mumbai, TISS,
Parrish. F.R (1982).Your spiritual adoption and heavenly citizenship. ACTS, 37.
Vlassof, C. 1990. The value of sons in an Indian Village: how window see it. Population
studies, 44, 5-20.
