Children are made available for inter-country adoption only if they are not adopted within India after three cycles of referral.
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Shivamogga: In the past five years, as many as 108 children with special needs from Karnataka were adopted by parents outside India under the intercountry child adoption programme. In contrast, only 21 children with special needs were adopted within the country during the same period. In all, over 500 children were available for adoption during that period.
Data from the Department of Women and Child Development indicates a reluctance among prospective adoptive parents in India to take in children with special needs.
Children are made available for inter-country adoption only if they are not adopted within India after three cycles of referral.
Besides, with cases of many biological parents abandoning such new born babies near drains and lakes, the department has asked such parents to instead call 1098 or consult the department concerned or the district child welfare committee. Overseas couples are interested in adopting such children since the birth rate there is low and many couples are struggling to have their own biological babies.
District Child Welfare Committee chairman Tajuddin Khan told DH that children with minor disabilities like cleft lip, minor heart ailments, hearing impairment are not adopted by people in the country. But foreigners don't mind adopting them as they are better able to bear the medical expenses.
On the reasons for the rise in number of children with special needs, he said, were marriages within blood relatives in the country. Most parents abandon such children as they find them a burden. "We upload health details of children and people overseas share those details with doctors in their countries. They will initiate the adoption procedure only after their doctors confirm that disabilities can be treated."
He said a child with a cleft lip from Shivamogga was sent to the US recently. UK, Canada, France and European countries adopt children with special needs and ensure they lead normal lives by the time they are teens.