Ananya Sengupta http://www.telegraphindia.com/1151014/jsp/nation/story_47920.jsp#.Vh4oJRahcmw
New Delhi, Oct. 13: Indians who want to adopt a child don't need police clearance any more. A new format issued recently by the women and child development (WCD) ministry for the home study report, a must to assess how suitable a couple are as prospective adoptive parents, has done away with this requirement. "We saw no point in subjecting couples to police verification when there is no way the police can verify their criminal records (if any) with absolute certainty," said Veerendra Mishra, secretary, Child Adoption Resource Authority (Cara). Mishra said the apex body for child adoptions in the country had received reports that some prospective parents "have been waiting for six-seven months to get a police verification certificate". "Unless we have an integrated system, where there is a central database, such verifications are useless," he added. However, foreigners who want to adopt children from India still have to approach the police in their respective countries for clearance. According to the new adoption guidelines, home studies have to be completed within a month of the prospective parents registering on the Cara website. Minister Maneka Gandhi, who addressed a two-day conference of state ministers and principal secretaries and secretaries of WCD departments in the capital last week, said more than 3,600 home studies were pending. She instructed the officials to complete the studies as early as possible. According to the earlier home study report (HSR) format for domestic adoptions, a social worker had to mention details about the criminal background check on the prospective parents and other adults living in the house, along with a police verification certificate. This was apart from other parameters like income and employment, health, lifestyle, home and neighbourhood, and parenting styles and attitudes. "We had just moved to the Delhi locality we live in now when we went to get our police verification done. For months the cops made us run around saying our house didn't fall under this police station and that. Then they said they couldn't verify our records and if they issued a police clearance, it could be misused," said a prospective parent who didn't want to be identified. "It was a nightmare. Then we had to sit down and explain to a bunch of policemen that we wanted to adopt a child and that's why we wanted the clearance. They couldn't understand why. It was embarrassing," she added. Lorraine Campos, a Delhi-based social worker in charge of adoptions at Palna, a recognised adoption centre in the capital, welcomed the decision to do away with police clearances. "Most parents who adopt have passports and PAN cards and all of them are taxpayers. There is no need to treat them as criminals. Also, it is not very nice to go around telling police officials about your decision to adopt a baby when it is a very personal and intimate choice," she said. It's not just police verifications; Cara has completely overhauled the HSR format. While the earlier version required the social worker, a professional in the field, to fill up the entire form, the new form has two parts. The first part, to be filled up by the prospective parents, involves assessing themselves. The other part has to be filled up by the social worker in charge of the case. The new format has expanded the social workers' scope of investigation. They have to talk to neighbours, relatives and even children present in the house and record their responses to the decision to adopt, including "any adverse remarks". -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
