Inaccurate to say India has an “orphan problem”

That is what Vinita Bhargava, a prominent scholar on the country’s adoption networks, says in the article As adoption demands grow, Indian families look beyond castes and religion [Washington Post 5/16/12 by Benjamin Gottlieb and Emily Frost]

“In major cities such as New Delhi, upper-middle-class childless couples are overcoming entrenched ideals of caste and creed to look outside their extended family for adoption. But the trend has yet to reach India’s rural pockets. Not every region in India has access to an official adoption agency, explained Mohan Rao, a professor of social science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.”

““We do not have enough institutions that can deal with this issue,” Rao said. “We have such a huge country — with so many problems facing the country — that this has been something that has in a sense fallen off the radar.”

Statistics

“In 2010, about 5,700 children were legally adopted in India, an increase in almost 300 percent from 2009, according to the Central Adoption Resource Authority, the country’s official body for adoption. But to view that spike in total adoptions as a sign of government success would be misguided, said Vinita Bhargava.”

Juxtaposed with the number of orphans in the country, estimated at 20 million by SOS Children’s Village, an international nongovernmental organization, the government response to changing attitudes toward adoption has been sluggish. Only recently has formalized adoption started to take off in India. Previously, informal inter-family adoptions were the norm.”

Bhargava agrees: “The demand for adoption now is so high, but there aren’t enough babies who are legally free for adoption.”

““There may be millions of destitute children. There may be millions of neglected children, but they’re not legally free for adoption,” she said. “We may be poor, but we’re not necessarily saying, ‘Take our children.’ ”

 

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