(a) Whether the Government proposes to set up a system for monitoring the adoption agencies to check child trafficking in the name of adoption;
(b) If so, the details thereof;
(c) Whether the children found abandoned are not handed over to the child welfare committee and instead they are sent directly to the adoption agencies where preference is given to the foreign parents than the Indian parents; and
(d) If so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI KRISHNA TIRATH)
(a)to(d): Adequate safeguards to check child trafficking are in-built in In-country Guidelines 2004 and inter-country Guidelines 2006 which govern the adoption procedure in the country.
As per juvenile justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, any child in need of care and protection is required to be produced before the Child Welfare Committee within 24 hours (excluding journey time). The Child Welfare Committee, after following due procedure, declares such child legally free for adoption.
However, if a licensed adoption agency receives an abandoned child under its care, it has to
file an FIR with the police and make an application to Child Welfare Committee within 24 hours seeking permission to keep the child in custody.
The Government encourages in –country adoption in preference to inter-country adoption. This
has been reiterated in CARA Guidelines which state that all adoption agencies will give
priority to in-country adoption and exhaust all possibilities to place a child within the country before proposing inter country adoption. Only when all efforts to place the child
with Indian parents fail, the process for inter-country adoption is initiated.
This stipulation of giving first preference for in-country adoption is further ascertained by CARA before issuing No-objection certificate (NOC) for inter–country adoption.