Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws
Source : The Hindu
GS II : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What is discussed under Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws?
- Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws
- What are the challenges?
- Adoption Related Rules in India
Why in News ?
A report recently tabled on Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws in Parliament by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice.
It is important to get a true picture of number of children who are orphaned/abandoned through a district-level survey and the data needs to be updated on a regular basis.
Key Facts
- Such a legislation should be more transparent, accountable, less bureaucratic and applicable to all irrespective of religion.
- In its report the standing committee said the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA) and Juvenile Justice Act have their own virtues and shortcomings.
- Adoption procedure laid down under HAMA is simple and takes less time as compared to that stipulated in JJ Act, adoptions made under JJ Act are transparent, accountable and verifiable.
- Committee also noted that the Adoption Regulations framed under Juvenile Justice Act provide for an elaborate and time consuming adoption procedure beset with inordinate delays.
- According to the suggestion of Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, the new legislation should cover all religions and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws
- It has suggested that a monthly meeting chaired by the District Magistrate should be held in every district.
- This will ensure that orphan and abandoned children found begging in streets are produced before the Child Welfare Committee and are made available for adoption at the earliest.
Important Facts and Figures
- There were 27,939 prospective parents registered with the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) as on December 2021
- It is up from nearly 18,000 in 2017.
- In comparison though there were a total 6,996 orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children residing in childcare institutions considered adoptable
- Only 2,430 were declared legally free for adoption by Child Welfare Committees.
- The waiting time for adoption too has increased to three years from one year in the past five years.
- The total number of children adopted in 2021-2022 was only 3,175.
- There are only 2,430 children found to be legally free for adoption in a country with an estimated 3.1 crore orphans according to the 2020 Orphan Report of IHH Humanitarian and Social Research Center (INSAMER)
- This is because of the failure to bring more children in need of care into the government’s safety net.
- There are 6,525 child care institutions registered under the Juvenile Justice Act.
What are the challenges?
LGBTQ+
- LGBTQIA person can apply to Central Adoption Review Authority (CARA) for adoption as a single parent only.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay - If same-sex union gets legalised in India, lawyers and child rights activists said it will end discrimination against LGBTQIA+ members who will be able to adopt as a married couple.
Superiority of Father
- Indian laws accord superiority to the father in case of guardianship of a minor.
Returning Children after Adoption
- An unusual upsurge in adoptive parents returning children after adopting face by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)
- Reason is disruptions occur is that disabled children and older children take much longer to adjust to their adoptive families.
Child Trafficking
- Becoming increasingly common as the pool of children available for adoption shrinks and waitlisted parents grow restless.
- Several incidents were occurred in the recent years.
Adoption Related Rules in India
- Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
- Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs are legalized to adopt kids.
- Orphan, abandoned, or surrendered child who has been declared legally free for adoption by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) can be adopted.
- Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA)
- Under the Act, a Hindu parent or guardian can give a child in adoption to another Hindu parent.
- The Act does not allow the adoption of an orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child who is in the care of any specialized adoption agency (SSA) or child care institution.
- Inter-country adoptions don’t come under the purview.
- Guardians and Ward Act (GWA), 1980
- This law covers Hindus, followers of Lingayat, Virashiva, Brahmo, Parthana Samaj, Arya Samaj, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains. But Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews are not covered under this law.
- The Guardians and Ward Act of 1890 applies to everyone regardless of caste, creed or community, whereas the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act are considered only Hindu.
- SC judgment (Githa Hariharan vs Reserve Bank of India in 1999)
- Challenged the HMGA for violating the guarantee of equality of sexes under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
- But the judgment failed to recognise both parents as equal guardians, subordinating a mother’s role to that of the father.
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