November 21, 2024

Bombay HC Stays Adoption Notification Of September 2022

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-01-12 08:05:32

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The statistics are worrisome. There are nearly 30 million orphaned or abandoned children in India. In 2018 it was estimated that there were nearly 27.5 million married couples who wanted to conceive but remained childless. Yet only 4000 children get adopted in India. The Ministry of Women & Child Development issued rules in September 2022 that empowered District Magistrates to oversee and decide on adoption cases. The government said that it was a measure to speed up the process and ensure that more people adopted children and applications did not remain pending. Now the Bombay High Court has stayed the implementation of these rules and ordered that HC benches can continue hearing pending cases. It has also ruled that the Centre or the states cannot transfer pending cases to concerned district magistrates.

Childless couples do not take the adoption route for many reasons, one of them being the tedious, costly and time-consuming process involved in adopting a child. Although the process has been made transparent and online, still the rate of adoption is too low. If now there are legal hassles, it will drop further. Instead of making it easier for people to adopt, these developments are creating more hurdles and will scare people away. Further, while it is necessary to firmly establish that those who apply for adoption are capable of taking care of the child, the rules must be easy and flexible so that genuine people are not deprived of the opportunity.

What is needed is that the process be made easier with a clear line of command. If needed, a separate Central adoption authority can be established with branches in states. All states and the Centre must work together to ensure that more and more orphaned and abandoned children find shelter in homes of childless couples who want to adopt them. Childless couples or others willing to adopt must be encouraged to provide love, care and home to such children.