Age Exclusive: Adoptions to get boost as fee for foreigners waived

New Delhi: In a move that will encourage adoptions in a big way, the government has decided to do away with the adoption fee for foreigners which they had to pay if they wanted to take their adopted children abroad with them.

Prospective adoptive parents earlier had to submit an investment plan and also invest a certain amount of money in the name of their child. The women and child development ministry brought out fresh regulations last week, according to which the requirement for any kind of fees has been done away with.

Apart from this, the ministry has also decided to form a special tribunal to resolve adoption-related cases as child welfare committees — which were entrusted with this job — sometimes take too long, sources said.

Sources in the ministry also say that a surety bond was irrelevant as the prospective adoptive parents are under scrutiny by the adoption agency for a period of two years, and in case of disruption or dissolution of adoption, the child shall be entitled to receive care, protection and rehabilitation through the child protection services of that country and as per the Hague Adoption Convention. The ministry of external affairs has also exempted foreigners from submitting a surety bond of Rs 15,000 for the issuance of passport to their adopted child.

The surety bond was a financial guarantee which was to be executed before a court for the proper maintenance of the child abroad, and in the event of the child becoming destitute or its guardianship being terminated, for the child’s return to India at the expense of the guardian or the guarantor.

“It has been felt that the requirement of the submission of surety bond of Rs 15,000 executed by the adoptive parents before the competent court to the passport authority to obtain the passport for their adopted child needs to be revisited. Therefore, it has been decided to do away with the requirement of the submission of surety bond executed by the adoptive parents before the competent court to obtain the passport for their inter-country adopted child,” the MEA order said.

The WCD ministry, especially women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, has been making efforts to encourage adoption.

The ministry has been running a campaign to ensure that adoptive parents, both in-country as well as inter-country, don’t fall prey to unscrupulous elements and end up paying much more than they are supposed to while completing the process.

Accoridng to the CARA website, inter-country adoption from India has increased from 374 in 2014-15 to 666 in 2015-16.