Aadhaar cards will be issued to children in the adoption homes across the country to empower them with an identity of their own.
“To give identity to the children, Aadhaar cards will be issued to all the children in the adoption homes across India.
This has already been started as a pilot project in Delhi. It will eliminate false identities,” said Dr Veerendra Mishra, Secretary of the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
The announcement came at the end of a two-day national meet on adoption organised by CARA of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Responding to concerns expressed by various stakeholders about the difficulty of making Aadhaar card for infants and small children, he said that for children who are below 5 years of age, biometrics are not collected, they are tagged to the parent/guardian’s ID. Legal experts also addressed the concerns raised by the agencies.
Aparna Bhat, former member of the NOC Committee of CARA, said due caution should be exercised to follow all rules during the adoption process and there should be complete documentation to prevent adoption from being declared illegal at any stage. On inter-country adoption, representatives from MEA revealed that e-seva kendras have been opened to speed up and simplify the passport making process.
Earlier, adoption agencies expressed their apprehensions about not getting enough children because of illegal adoptions at hospitals and maternity homes. They also pointed at delays caused by police and judiciary, as well as passport issuing authorities, in giving clearances.
The meet concluded with the message that all stakeholders should make every possible effort to ensure that the interests of the children are given utmost importance in the process of adoption.
The meet was inaugurated by Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who stressed that any kind of delay in adoption process will not be tolerated and the entire process of adoption of a child should not take more than four months. .
During the sessions, various stakeholders including child care agencies, legal experts, representatives from MEA and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) discussed issues and processes related to the implementation of adoption guidelines.
The experts also addressed and took due note of the concerns and issues raised by various agencies especially, Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs).
The proposed guidelines governing adoption of children, 2015 were discussed.
The guidelines have been framed keeping in mind the issues and challenges that have been faced by CARA, adoption agencies and prospective adoptive parents (PAPs).
With the new guidelines, it will become possible for PAPs to track the status of their application. It will also make the entire system centralised, transparent and efficient.
CARA Chairperson Deepak Sandhu said that all stakeholders present at the meet are involved in the task of protection of rights of the children and all should work together to achieve this objective.
She also emphasised on the role of awareness campaigns so that illegal adoptions can be checked and the rights of the child can be protected in future.