A recent case in which two adoptions sought to be effected through a local child care institution (CCI) were revealed to be illegal, thanks to the Vellore district court's intervention, has exposed the lack of awareness among CCIs about the strict procedure laid down by the Centre for both in-country and inter-country adoption of children.
The story began when the parents of two ‘adopted' children approached the District Court seeking finalisation of the adoption and a decree declaring them as the children's parents. When the court asked the Department of Social Welfare to enquire into the bonafides of the adoption, the department constituted a committee, comprising the District Social Welfare Officer (DWSO), a member of the district Child Welfare Committee, a probation officer and a member of the district-level adoption coordination agency.
The committee visited Shishu Bhavan, the CCI from where the children were given in adoption. The DWSO, Vellore, Gomathi, a member of the committee, told The Hindu that the panel confirmed that Shishu Bhavan had given the two children in adoption, though it was not an authorised adoption agency. The committee's enquiries revealed that the children who were adopted by the parents who approached the court had been handed over by the Christian Medical College, Vellore, to Shishu Bhavan. During this visit, the committee also found that Shishu Bhavan, which had five adoptable children below six years of age, had failed to renew its licence as a CCI under the Juvenile Justice Amendment Act (JJA), 2006, and, therefore, it was not authorised to keep children. “We asked the CCI to register itself under the JJA. In respect of the five children, we sent two of them to a registered Indian placement agency in Chennai, two to the Society for Rural Development and Promotion Services (SRDPS), Tirupattur, a licensed adoption placement agency, and another child to a CCI in Vellore,” she said.
Another committee member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both CMC and Shishu Bhavan had taken the steps they did in the best interests of the children, but had inadvertently violated the JJA, which states that the children had to be produced before the district-level CCI, which has the powers of a First Class Magistrate to take decisions on placement of children in suitable homes for adoption.
