It’s a long and winding queue to adopt a child in Karnataka.
As many as 1,795 people from the State have registered to adopt children, while the number of children legally cleared for adoption as of now is only 120, according to statistics with the Department of Women and Child Development.
However, the fact that Karnataka ranked second, after Maharashtra, in facilitating adoption in 2016-17 is indicative of the situation not being rosy elsewhere either.
While Maharashtra facilitated adoption of 711 children, Karnataka was a very distant second with 259 in the same period.
With the waiting process being long, many among the 1,795 prospective parents have registered on the lists of more than one State in the hope of finding an adoptive child faster.
A prospective adoptive parent who registered in September last in the central pool of waitlisted candidates, said she had recently decided to switch and register with three States, including Karnataka.
“We keep our hopes up by speaking to other hopeful parents on social networking groups,” she said.
Divya Narayanappa, District Child Protection Officer, said that they were making efforts to bring more children into the legal adoption network and speed up the process. They had stepped up awareness in hospitals and among NGOs to ensure that abandoned babies were brought to the children’s homes to facilitate legal adoption.
The department has also taken up various initiatives such as ‘Mamatheya Thottilu’ where they have placed cradles in State-run children’s home and in agencies so that parents who want to surrender their children place them in a safe place. They also plan to ensure that all hospitals also keep such cradles.
