November 28, 2001

        New guidelines are being framed to regulate in-country adoptions. The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya disclosed this while inaugurating National Level Training Programme for social workers in the field of adoption here today. He said that the Ministry wants transparency and a high degree of integrity in adoptions. Dr. Jatiya said that the relevance and role of social workers assumes a great significance in spreading awareness and knowledge to end illegal practices of adoption. Referring to malpractices by some organizations in the conduct of adoptions, he said that guidelines and proper regulations are essential to check them.. The Minister said that we have drawn the attention of the state governments and NOGs in this regard but much will depend on the role of social workers and institutions. He said that more than 18,000 children were adopted during last six years through the agencies recognized by the Central Adoption Resource Agency, CARA. Of these, about 10,000 were in-country adoptions, which were too meager given the vastness of our country. Dr. Jatiya said that the government has been actively considering various steps for advocating more and more adoptions. He said the Grant –in-aid Scheme of Shishu Greh has been extended to government run institutions in order to bring in more destitute children under the adoption programme. The new Juvenile Justice Act also provides for rehabilitation of abandoned and destitute children through adoption.

        The two-day training programme aims at orientation and sensitization of professional social workers, caseworkers and scrutiny officers of about one hundred placement and scrutinizing agencies and voluntary organizations. The training programme is part of the CARA’s National Initiative on Child Adoption started last year with seventeen regional and state level training workshops to develop the capacity of various NGOs and generate awareness. This year too nineteen such workshops have been envisaged. The target groups of these programmes include judiciary, police, government officials, passport officials and social workers and institutions involved in adoption work. The National level Programme started today focuses mainly on standardization of adoption practices, developing linkages with aligned departments/ institutions and documentation.