District Collector Biju Prabhakar on Tuesday announced new guidelines for adopting children from the Kerala State Child Welfare Council.
At a press conference here, he said the guidelines, formulated on the basis of the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA)’s rules, would increase transparency in adoption procedures.
An adoption committee would be formed with the District Collector as the chairman and the Sub-Collector as the vice-chairman. The members would be the District Probation Officer or the District Protection Officer; a social worker experienced in working with children and nominated by the Collector; a medical officer; a child psychologist from the Government Medical College; and a legal adviser from the Child Welfare Council.
As per the new guidelines, the annual income of the adopting couple should be at least Rs.3 lakh.
Their educational qualification and age limit would be as per the CARA guidelines of 2011. They should have their own flat or house, the Collector said.
House visit
The house visit and study of the applicant-couples would be done by a non-governmental organisation. The physical and mental health reports of the couple should be from hospitals that come under the health scheme of the Union government.
The new guidelines were prepared after a meeting of Additional Chief Secretary K.M. Abraham, Social Welfare Department Director V.N. Jithendran, and Mr. Prabhakar on November 13.
Applications
He said more than 750 applications for adoption had been received till August 30 last year. From this, a shortlist would be prepared as per the new guidelines. The new applications may be had from the Child Welfare Council office at Thycaud or from www.cara.nic.in. Those who had applied earlier should also submit a fresh application, before January 31. The home study fees would be returned to couples who do not meet the revised guidelines. The revised list of adopting couples would be published on February 20. Those who had complaints regarding the list could register the same till February 28.
Collector to be chairman of adoption committee
750 applications for adoption received till August 30
