authorities governing Adoption in india

What are the authorities governing Adoption

Adoption being a noble cause has a great significance in the people’s life. The process of adoption is regulated under different legislation according to the need and type of adoption. Some of them are Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, The juvenile Justice Act, and several guidelines for regulating adoption procedure. Simultaneously, the several adoption authorities are there which are responsible for the effective implementation of adoption legislations. Some of them are discussed below:

CARA: CARA stands for Central Adoption Resource Authority. This is the central authority which regulates adoption in India. Any person who wants to adopt child in India have to apply for the adoption in CARA for the further procedure. The Cara will initiate the procedure after evaluation that whether the child is legally free for adoption and direct the appropriate state authorities to complete the home study report and other legalities. The foreign adoptive parents who want to child from India can make their registration in the parent country and then the foreign adoption agency will make them register in CARA.

SARA: SARA stands for State Adoption Agency. The authority is situated in every state for dealing with the adoption related work under the guidance of central adoption authority.

SAA: Specialised Adoption Agency plays a key role in the Adoption procedure. SAA helps the Central Authority in all the possible aspects such as uploading the data of children on the website of CARA who are declared free for adoption, taking care of the children admitted in the adoption centre, prepare home study for the adoptive child, facilitating meetings of children with their adoptive parents, restoration of child to their biological parents if possible, medical tests that are mandatory to be conducted at the time of admission of children, preparing memory album and many other things that are prescribed under the legislation for the welfare of the child.

DCPU: DCPU stands for District Child Protection Unit. This is the coordinating agency in every district with CARA and after getting the details of prospective parents from CARA, the agency will initiate home study procedure to ensure that whether the family or parents are capable to take care of the adopted child or not. On the basis of the home study report they prepare a report stating answers to all the relevant answers and if they satisfied will present the report to Magistrate for getting the decree in favour of adoptive parents

Regional Passport office: If the adoption is inter country then the the passport authority is under obligation to issue passport of the adopted child within the prescribed period after receiving NOC from CARA so that the custody can be handover to the adoptive parents as soon as possible.

Birth Certificate Department: After getting the NOC from CARA, the birth certificate department has to make necessary changes in the birth certificate of the adopted child in the prescribed period.

AAFA: AAFA is an international organisation which helps in facilitating inter-country adoption throughout the world. The countries who are signatory of Hague convention has to follow these guidelines and procedure given under the Adoption Regulations. Every country has AAFA agency which help people to make their adoption journey easy and blissful.

Diplomatic Mission: The countries who are not signatory to the Hague convention has to approach the Diplomatic mission for the inter country adoption procedure.

Child Welfare Committee: The child welfare committee is constituted for the welfare of the child. The agency is responsible to declare the child legally free for adoption after preparing the child report. The children who are conflict with law can also be taken in adoption from the child welfare committee.

The above mentioned authorities are continuous working on the welfare and development of children in all the possible circumstances. Moreover the authorities ensure that all the children in the society lives in a healthy and homely environment. The government should take effective measures for the proper functioning of the various department establishes under the Central and state authority. And the awareness programme regarding the adoption should be arranged on a large scale to enlighten the adoption as a good cause that can gave a new life to both the child and the parents.

-Surbhi Singla

Associate at Aggarwals & Associates, S.A.S Nagar, Mohali.