Lok Sabha Question No. 1140 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-07
Subject: Children Returned by Adoptive Parents
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Dhanush M Kumar, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, Ganesan Selvam

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1140

TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2020

## CHILDREN RETURNED BY ADOPTIVE PARENTS

1140.  DR. HEENA GAVIT: SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR: SHRIMATI RANJANBEN DHANANJAY BHATT: SHRI SELVAM G.:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether large number of children adopted across the country have been returned to Child Care Institution (CCI) by their adoptive parents;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons  therefor  along  with  the  number  of such children returned to CCI during the last three years;
- (c) whether the prevailing adoption procedure lacks the provision of support system for adoptive parents and children and if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to build social infrastructure at the ground level;
- (d) whether Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has conducted any study to prevent such incidents, if so, the details of the preventive steps taken thereunder; and
- (e) the other measures taken by the Government to prevent the declining trend in child adoption  in  the  country  and  to  make  adoption  process  more  transparent  and accessible?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a)  to  (e):  As  per  the  Child  Adoption  Resource  Information  and  Guidance  System (CARINGS), an Online Portal of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), out of total 9860 In-country Adoptions in the last three years, 174 cases of disruption and 05 cases of dissolution have been reported.

The details are as follows :

| Year    |   No. of In-country Adoptions |   No. of Disruption cases reported |   No. of Dissolution cases reported |
|---------|-------------------------------|------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
| 2016-17 |                          3210 |                                 59 |                                   0 |
| 2017-18 |                          3276 |                                 60 |                                   4 |
| 2018-19 |                          3374 |                                 55 |                                   1 |
| Total   |                          9860 |                                174 |                                   5 |

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, Juvenile Justice (Care  and  Protection  of  Children)  Model  Rules,  2016  and  Adoption  Regulations,  2017 mandate necessary support to be extended to adoptive parents and children. Functions of the State Adoption Resource Agencies (SARAs), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) and Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) have been enumerated at Regulations 33, 34 and 29 respectively.

The adoption process is conducted through online  platform i.e. CARINGS (Child Adoption  Resource  Information  and  Guidance  System).    The  disruption/  dissolution  is mainly observed in cases of placement of older children primarily due to the adjustment issues of the child with the family. Emphasis is being given for the counselling of parents adopting  older  children  and  the  older  children  being  placed in  adoption.  Regular awareness programme and training for capacity building of various stakeholders are also organised from time to time to facilitate the adoption process.

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